Hourglass
by Evil-Ekat
Summary: From the hands of one evil into another, Mabel finds herself making a deal with the worst of them all in order to keep her son safe. Or as safe as they can be once she had promised anything to him. Naturally, Bill already knows what he wants; Mabel broken beyond repair, and an heir. He begins to play mind games with Mabel as questions about her son's origin come in to play.
1. Despair

**Wow. This has really changed from what I originally planned. Really, really changed. Strangely enough though, only one crucial word has been edited in this chapter. Amazing how a single syllable can change the whole outcome of a story. But it really is important to everything in this story, so even if you are familiar with the early draft I had for 1000YOM, I strongly suggest rereading this so you are not confused in the next chapter and those to come. The next chapter is nothing like the original posted in 1000YOM, so we'll see how you all like that! Anyways, this is going to be a lot less dark than what was originally planned, because I really, really didn't want to have an M rated story. Of course that doesn't mean it's not a dark story, it just means that it's my usual level of dark, dethroning _Reality _as my darkest multi-chapter story.**

**And on updates, I will be dually working on this story along with _Picking Up the Pieces. _I don't have any set updates as per usual, but I would like to challenge myself and see if I can manage writing two large stories with similar themes at the same time. If not I'll just keep writing whichever story has the larger median of reviews, follows, and favourites**

**But enough of that, read, review, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

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><p>Staggering through the woods, Mabel felt her already wildly beating heart speed up as she heard something behind her. It could have been the rustle of a leaf, or a snap of a twig, but either way, it was a clear indicator that she and Monty were being followed. Despite her urges for them to hurry, her son began to lag behind. She debated carrying him, but she found she could not even muster the ability to let go of his hand. The little boy knew better than to ask why they were running or where they were going, but he couldn't help but say;<p>

"I'm tired."

"I know sweetie, I know. The woman replied between laboured breaths. "But we have to keep going ok?"

Yet she would have to eat her words as they both froze in their tracks. The two listened as they heard a familiar voice echoing on the wind. Both shivered despite the warm summer's night before starting off again. Their steps through the woods became less quite and more frantic as they tried to distance themselves from the dreaded voice. It grew fainter, but the sense of danger still lurked stronger than ever, and Mabel's maternal instincts were going crazy.

"You two look like you're in a bit of trouble, perhaps some help is needed?" Bill asked, materializing behind them. "Well, for a fee of course, but you know..."

Mabel had to bite her tongue in order not to scream. Bill, true to his egotistical nature as always had to make a dramatic entrance.

"W-what do you want?" Mabel stuttered.

"I never can seem to get a simple hello from people these days." The demon huffed. "Unless _what do you want_ and _get away from me _are now synonymous, and no one bothered to inform me?"

"You never answered the question. "

"What obligations do I have to answer your question when someone can't even say hello?"

"I don't have time for this. " Mabel hissed, turning around and walking off with a still shocked Monty in tow. Bill followed behind, just now taking notice of the little boy who had been shyly hiding behind her.

"Oh great, another Pines to deal with." The demon observed.

"You say that like there are a lot of us." The woman replied, not bothering to turn back and look at him.

"One kid is five times too many."

"That doesn't make any mathematical sense."

"Math is supposed to make sense? Anyways, introductions!" Handing Mabel's son a blank cue-card, he continued; "My card."

"There's nothing on it." Monty said, handing it back to him.

"Was there supposed to be? Well then, I happen to be Bill Cipher, world's best and only dream-demon, base of your nightmares, part-time psychopath and full-time master of the mind. Of course I already know who you are Pine Tree the second, dead ringer for Shooting Star's meddling twin."

"My name's not Pine Tree, it's Monty."

"Isn't that what I said? Anyways now that we've gotten those _riveting _ introductions out if the way, you seem to be in need of a deal Shooting Star."

"No. And shouldn't you be trapped in the dreamscape?" Mabel asked, still trying to walk away from him.

Bill shrugged.

"I didn't feel like being banished forever, so I took a break."

"That defeats the whole point of the banished forever purpose." She pointed out.

"I know. So about that deal then-"

Mabel stopped and turned to face the demon. Monty didn't expect this and crashed into her, but she did not pay attention to that. Crossing her arms the woman snapped;

"I'm not making a deal with you Bill."

"Of course not." He replied slyly.

Not liking the tone in his voice, Mabel said;

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You tell me."

"My you're feeling cryptic today."

"I like it. It helps with the whole; making a deal with-"

"No." The brunette said firmly.

"Well, it seems you're set in your ways for now. I guess I'll just take my leave. Deserting you to your own devices. With out help. The help that you probably need. And could easily get from the demon right in front of you! Again, fees included, but I'm sure we could work something out." He stated in chopy sentences.

"Good."

"My feelings are hurt."

"I can tell."

"You know what to do if you change your mind."

With that the dream-demon left in the same way he come. By vanishing into the night.

Shaking her head, Mabel continued to walk. After his first ever encounter with Bill, Monty said quiet for a while, musing over what his mother and the demon had been talking about. It was clear that he already knew his mother; why else would he have nick names for her and his uncle?

But if she knew him, why wouldn't she want his help? Asides from the fact he was crazy, he seemed a little, off. And come to think of it, evil people were always the best dressed. You'd truly have to be determined in your villainous ways to wear a top hat and tie while in the middle of the forest. Not to mention there was that darker undertone in his voice that seemed to say;

_"I can see right through out and beyond. I'll be getting my way no matter what you agree to."_

It didn't quite set the boy on edge, it sounded oddly familiar to him...

"Who was he?" Monty asked, hoping his mother would have a clearer version of events.

"Bad news." She replied brusquely.

"Worse than-"

"He's on par with him, they vary from time to time though. Bill is a handful, and he happens to know, and absolutely loves it. Assume every thing he says isn't completely true and you'll start to see past the Willy Wonka façade."

"Is he really a demon?"

"Dream-demon. He doesn't go around persuading people to sell their souls to him, but if he asks for whatever reason, don't do it. Don't even make a regular deal with him. Just, throw some holy water or something and run away."

"But if he doesn't tell the truth, then what about what he just told me?"

"Let me rephrase what I said. Everything but when Bill talks about himself is a lie or twist of words in some way or another. The only way you'll catch that egomaniac being honest is when he can go on about how amazing he is. But that's beside the point."

Facing her son, she sternly said;

"Bottom line, he's dangerous."

They went back to quickly walking, leaving Monty to farther wonder about the demon. If his mother had tangled with him before, then clearly she knew what she was talking about. But what had he done?

"What happened the last time you saw him?"

Mabel did not seem to hear him, she had frozen. The woman remained like that for a moment, then finally shook her head,

"Do you hear that?" The brunette whispered.

"Hear what?"

The full meaning of these words set in on him. Mabel squeezed the boy in a bone-crushing hug in an attempt to stay strong and not cry in front of her son. Monty, on the other hand was sniffling until he could no longer take it and began to openly cry.

"Shhh. It's ok." Mabel soothed, her voice wavering as she rubbed his back. "We're safe now, we're never going to have to see him again. Not ever."

After what felt like a short time and an eternity mixed together, it was over. They were safe for the time's being. The revelation kept returning to him like a cool breeze scattering the warm air on a humid summer's day, the weight was lifted from the relatively small boy's chest. The idea just seemed so fantastic, so whimsical it was almost impossible to belive. It had only been a month, thirty-one days with the devil. But the fractured family had escaped. No one would ever be able to hurt his mother again as long as he could help it.

Eventually, the tears mixed of joy and sorrow dried, and Monty realized how tired he still was. His mother did too, so she slouched against one of the forest's innumerable trees and let him sit on her lap. She pulled him into a hug, cradling her seven year-old boy as if he were a newborn baby. Slowly, he found himself lulled to sleep while Mabel said;

"I'll stay awake so you can sleep through the night..."

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><p>True to her word, Mabel was still awake the next morning. Barely at that. The woman found herself begin to blink tiredly before jerking back awake again, remembering what she had told the boy. In an effort to stay awake, Mabel watched the morning unfold around her.<p>

Squinting in the dawn's early light, she could see two silhouettes of deer, a doe and her fawn, trot by them evidently on their way home. No stag was present, and it seemed like a good sign to he. That she and Monty would like the deer, be fine. What she did not see, was the lone wolf stalking them. This was because presently, the woman was engrossed in identifying the calls of all the birds.

Birds had started to wake, announcing this through their various cries. Ranging from the shrill notes of woodpeckers, to the more angry and boisterous twittering of robins, the ghostly throbbing call of a mourning dove, and the whip-whip-whippoorwill from the so appropriately named whippoorwill. Wait. Whippoorwill's were native to the South, not Gravity Falls...

"Attack!"

Mabel moved herself and Monty out of the way, just on time to miss the first onslaught of gnomes. Monty, still fairly confused having just woken up was aware of his mother somehow boosting him into one of the trees and sternly saying;

"Keep climbing and stay there no matter what."

Having never heard his mother use this tone before, Monty did as he was told and farther scaled the birch tree untill he was at least five meters off the ground. Here, the tree's whippy branches could no longer support his weight, so it was where the boy remained. He looked down, worried for his mother. He saw she had been crudely tied to the tree while a few hundred gnomes surrounded her.

"What do you want Jeff?" She asked, with none of the timidness she had used around Bill.

The only gnome with a brown beard said;

"Belive it or not we're not here to ask for your hand. This time." He added under his breath.

"Oh so you've menacingly snuck up on my son and I, and continued to tie me to a tree all for fun?"

"Well it was sort of fun." A gnome next to Jeff said.

Jeff slapped the other gnome in an almost comical way and said;

"No it wasn't."

"Yes it was." Another to his left chimed in.

Jeff slapped him too and asked;

"Anybody else?"

"But assembling a giant army of gnomes was fun." A voice in the back of the crowd said.

"Who said that?!"

A gnome raised his hand.

"Steve, Jason, who ever you are, slap yourself. Now."

The gnome slapped himself and gave a small cry of pain.

"Better." The leader said with a nod.

"Now, where were we?"

"So why exactly are you doing this?" Mabel asked, feeling annoyed and amused at the banter between all of the gnomes.

"We didn't really have much choice in the matter," Jeff explained. "I mean seriously, you actually let Gideon keep the pig whistle?!"

The woman felt the colour drain from her face, and any sense of calm she had before was replaced with panic.

"Y-you're working for G-Gideon?" She stuttered, now trying to pull away from the ropes.

"Yes. As a matter of fact," He said, pausing for a moment as he listened to the forest, "He's on his was right now."

Already, Mabel could hear what he was going say to her, do to her if he found them. The woman shivered, there was no way she could live through it again, she would fall into a million pieces. That was, she would if that wouldn't leave Monty all alone in the world.

_"There's no escape for ya'll Mabel Pines, and I'm just going to have to make that a well established fact in that pretty lil' head o' yours. But first, what to do about that darlin' lil' Dipper look-alike of yours? How long can he go with out breathing again?"_

_"I can help... for a fee of course..."_

Fighting back a sob, Mabel realized what she would have to.

"Triangulum, entangulum, venif-"

"No need for that tedious Latin and what not. I'm already here." Bill cut in, somehow balancing his weight at the top of one of the trees.

Monty screamed at his sudden appearance, and nearly lost his balance in the tree, he was now holding ont to on of it's limbs with both hands. Bill just rolled his eyes and looked down at the group of gnomes plus Mabel. Seeing the familiar shade of yellow at the top of the tree, Jeff also narrowed his eyes and snapped;

"Well if it isn't everyone's favourite corn chip."

This caught the demon's attention and he called down to the gnomes;

"How are ya' doing, Santa Clause?"

"Pythagora's theorem!"

"Lawn ornament!"

"Math equation!"

"Shmebulock!" Shmebulock chimed in.

"Funeral director!"

"Funeral director?"

"Is there an echo in here? Funeral director!"

"How is that even an insult?" Bill asked.

"Well you know, you've got the little hat and the tie, and you always see people wearing them at funerals..." Jeff trailed off, seeing how his insult lost it's sting.

"W-what exactly was all t-that about?" Mabel asked.

"They don't like each other because everyone says their voices sound the same." A gnome explained to her.

Bill and Jeff turned to face the speaker.

"I do not!" They both said simultaneously.

"So, do we have a deal then?" She ventured.

"I don't know, do we? I'll keep up my end, but what can you give in return?"

The woman began to panic realizing of course nothing could ever be easy with him. What could she give? Dipper had the journals, but he was off in South America ironically hiding them away. And she had said it herself that dream-demons have no real use for souls. Bill seemed to guess what she was thinking because he said;

"You really should have thought about this before hand you know."

"How am I supposed to know exactly what you, the supposed mysterious shadow, want?" Mabel asked, feeling tears begin to sting in her eyes again.

"Too bad." The demon replied with a shrug, "Think of something and we'll have a deal. But until then I'll be-"

"Watching you?" She asked, trying to stop him from leaving.

"Actually, I was going to say waiting to see what came to mind. Maybe a few-" He placed a foot on Monty's hand, forcing her son to let go. "Promts might help you."

Still being tied to the tree by the gnomes, Mabel could not see much above her, yet could tell that Monty was still in the tree above her. A group of gnomes was standing under the spot ready to catch him should he fall.

"Don't you dare touch him!" The brunette snarled, trying to push away from the bonds.

"You mean like this?" He asked, prying the boy's index finger away from the limb.

A sudden chill ran through her as she realized unless she found a way to get him on her side, the demon would willingly help the gnomes in their slightly forced side-project with Gideon. Starting with handing Monty over to the albino.

Surely there would be even less mercy for her once he found them. He would do worse than kill Monty and hurt her. She had just promised to the little boy that they would never have to see that monster again, and if the woman did not do something soon, she would have broken it. The thought of it, ever having to see her son like that again overcame her, and she openly let tears flow down her face.

"It's only a limited time offer." He cheerfully added, wrenching another finger away from the branch.

Gideon would find them and it would be all her fault. She though she could keep her son away from it all, but she had been wrong, terribly wrong...

"Don't worry, it's only a few feet. After all he's just only your son." The demon added, farther rubbing salt into the wound. He flicked away the boy's pinkie.

Monty gritted his teeth, trying not to frighten his mother. He wouldn't actually send him falling through the air would he? The demon would stop at the last possible second. He was trying to scare his mother into making a deal with him. Just then, his words were now directed at him."How old are you?" He asked in a sickeningly nice fashion.

"S-seven." He managed to huff, feeling the nerves in his two remaining fingers strain farther under his weight.

The demon leaned closer to him.

"Pine Tree could multiply triple digits at eight, can you?"

"Well, yes actually." He stuttered, wondering why he was being compared to his uncle.

"So you would know what six hundred and eighteen times zero is?"

"It's zero." He replied in a flash.

"Just like the number of fingers you now have holding onto the tree."

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><p>The demon prepared to fling the boy into the mercies of gravity when all at once, Gideon appeared through the trees and Mabel began to scream and cry at the sight of him and what the voice above her had just said. Yet the blond stopped as a few of her hysterical and strident words stood out to him.<p>

"Please! I'll do anything! Just get him away from here! Anything at all!"

It was the phrase he had been waiting to hear from her all along. The demon gave a frigid smile at the boy and whispered;

"Next time you won't be as lucky kiddo."

He twirled his hand and a pig whistle appeared in his hand. He gave a sharp blow on it, disarming the gnomes.

"I think you all know what you should do now."

Jeff scowled and said;

"Change of plans guys, out new target, is him." He pointed a stubby finger at Gideon. "Gnomes of the forest, attack!"


	2. Deal

**I suppose now's a good time as any to give ya'll the warnings for this story. After all you wouldn't want to read and then stumble across something horrific. Not that there is any in this chapter per say...**

**Warnings: Semi-graphic child abuse, implied rape, and over all dark themes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

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><p>Instantly, Gideon was overwhelmed with the wave of gnomes, biting, scratching, and clawing at his hair and shins. As the young man screamed and ran away, the demon picked up Monty by the shoulders and set him on the ground.<p>

Shaking off the creepy feeling of where the demon had held onto his shoulders, Monty watched his mother nervously. Mabel did not even acknowledge him, or the fact that they were safe. Then it hit him, they weren't safe. She had just made a deal with someone she had said was worse than Gideon. He had never seen her cry in all the time she had suffered under the man, not after a threat nor a slap did she ever break down in front of him. And yet these few words were enough to do so.

The demon strode over to the still crying Mabel and untied her while she continued to sob. As soon as she was free, she nearly tumbled over from standing still for so long. He caught the woman and let her cry into his jacket, slightly disgusted by the extreme emotions from her. It wasn't the first time he had a client become hysterical with what they had just done. Rather than try to comfort her, he simply said;

"Look at me,"

She did so.

"Now stare deeply into my eyes..." He snapped his fingers and the woman instantly fell asleep, and sprawled across the forest floor.

"W-what did you do to her?" Monty asked, unsure of what to do now.

"Who said all hypnotists were frauds? She's too hysterical to think straight, not much sleep didn't help her mind either."

He did not know how to reply to this. Instead the boy stood there waiting, wondering what was going to happen next.

"Your head's going to feel a little strange," The blond said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But other than that, you'll be fine. So here we go..."

_Go..._

_Go..._

_Go..._

* * *

><p>Shivering slightly, Monty braced himself for the worst. His world flashed black and white before him, swirling slowly into one giant whirlwind of grey. He thought he heard the demon laughing and screaming all at the same time, his mother crying, and another voice sternly saying something to the demon. The three voices swirled into the mix all morphing into one sound.<p>

"Wake up! Snap out of it!" Bill said, waving a hand in front of the boy's face.

"Wait... wa-?" He managed to say confused.

"You don't travel much do you?"

"Not with evil demons no." He replied, a little bravado returning to him.

"What's the whole point of puting evil in front of the word demon? There's no other kind."

"Cut me some slack, I'm only seven."

"Said the seven-year old..." Bill muttered under his breath. Yes indeed a carbon copy of Dipper Pines was five too many. But that would easily be remedied.

Monty looked around curiously, wondering where exactly he was. It was all white, there seemed to be no floor or anything beneath them, yet they could still walk around. The demon seemed to be guessing what he was thinking, no surprise really. He answered;

"For better lack of explanation, we're waiting for the artists to fill in the story board. Currently, we're on a blank sheet of paper."

"That still doesn't make much sense."

The demon ignored him.

"If you don't mind Alex, I'd like a background please!" He called into what was presumably the sky. "Man, I can never get anything done with that slacker hanging around."

Soon enough, a few grey lines began to run along what one could call the walls and floor. Some were darkened, and a few vanished before slightly different ones took their places. The ones that remained became darker as if being drawn over by black ink. Now he could see a few things, a table or two some floorboards. The demon waved his hand and a chair literally drew itself behind him. Then, things became coloured by the unseen forces, filling in the strange spaces. A background had literally been drawn for them.

"H-how is that even-"

"Possible?" Bill asked, "We're in the mind, anything is here. Just try not to think about it too hard and you'll be fine."

He waved his hand again and a chair appeared behind Monty.

"Have a seat. Also, desk please!"

Monty sat down as a desk appeared too. It was then the boy realized his mother was not there. He tried to fight the rising panic at this unsuccessfully. The demon noticed, and decided the las thing he needed was yet another hysterical Pines on his hands.

"Any ideas as to where we are?"

"As in-"

"The building yes, didn't I just tell you were in the mind?"

"You never let me finish. The Mystery shack, except it's never this clean..."

"That's for sure."

The two sat awkwardly, unsure about what to say now. It was Monty who spoke up first.

"Are you going to hurt my mother? Where is she?" He asked, remembering the promise he had made to himself and the familiar Gideon-ish look he had been giving her since she had sealed the deal.

Not expecting such a simple question from the child, he was unsure as of what to tell him. After all, he was still a kid of course, not just a short version of Dipper. The kid's though process was not that complex yet. and it was natural for him to wonder where his mother was as well. But that was going to be a touchy subject, one that the demon would do his best to avoid at all costs.

Seeing as he remained silent, Monty continued;

"Because you can hurt me instead, I won't let her defend me like before."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I said, I won't let her stop you from hurting me if it means you'll leave her alone." He slowly said, practically spelling out the words.

"I'm still not following you on this. Considering you haven't done anything completely annoying, why would I want to hurt you?"

"Because I look like Uncle Dipper." He explained as if it answered all the questions in the world.

"That doesn't justify hitting you though."

"Gideon says it does."

"Gideon's a deranged psychopath." He retorted.

"What does that mean?"

"Bad. Evil, you know, crazy."

"Like you?"

"When did I say I was evil or crazy?"

"But you just told me all demons are evil, there's no other kind." The boy said, waving his arms.

"That doesn't explain the crazy part." Bill deadpanned.

"You're not crazy?" Monty asked.

"Of course I am! But I'm crazy with style and poise. I don't go around hitting little defenceless kids because they look like someone."

Monty looked at him confused.

"He didn't really hit me that much." The boy said softly.

The demon felt a small pique of curiosity at this.

"Then what did he do to you?" He asked, wondering if Gideon had the gall to do the first thing that came to mind.

"He was really mean, and he'd always-"He placed his arms around his neck, unsure as of what to call the action.

"He strangled you?"

He nodded.

"He did more then that though. And there are a lot of marks on my arms too." He added, rolling up his sleeves.

The blond's eyes flitted to his arms for a moment before looking away again.

_"Change of subject! Change of subject! Change of subject!"_He frantically thought to himself.

"So is Monty a nick name for something?"

"You're trying to change the subject, but yes, it's short for Montgomery. What about you?"

"I would never try to do something so underhanded." He fibbed. "My real name's too long to pronounce."

"Yes you are. And how is William too long to pronounce?"

"No I'm not. And don't ever say that name again."

"William?"

"You just said it again!" Bill snapped.

"Why what's wrong with it? Don't longer names typically make people sound evil? Bill Cipher sounds like the name of a cereal mascot." Mabel's son pointed out.

The demon drww himself up indignantly. His shortened name most certainly did not make him sound or look like a cereal mascot in any way! He was terrifying! The causer of many long nights futily trying to stay awake lest he slip in to someone's dreams! Not a colourful mascot! Alight, perhaps he was a bit colourful. But that was it!

"What?! No it doesn't!"

"Say a slogan for anything right now."

"Buy our products. Now. Bill Cipher approved?"

"See what I mean?"

"I suppose you're right, _Montgomery."_

"It's just Monty."

"Pine Tree the second?" He teased.

"Monty."

"Pine Tree junior?"

"Mon. Ty." The boy said, stressing the syllables.

"Slightly shorter Pine Tree?"

"Monty. And where did Pine Tree come from? Who in their right mind comes up with a nick name like that?"

"I thought we went over this, I'm not in my right mind. But do you see what I'm getting at here? You go by Monty, and I go by Bill. Not William, not Corn-Chip, just. Bill."

"Why would someone choose the name Just Bill Cipher?"

"Please stop talking." The demon snarled.

Much to his surprise, Monty did not say anything. Instead, he began to curiously look around the room. It was Soos's break room down to the last fragment of dust. The only differences he could find was that there was a strange blue carpet with yellow arrows on it, and the whole room was clean and not under a layer of dust and storage boxes. After a few curious minutes of exploring, Monty came back to his spot.

"Where is she?" He asked once more.

"She's as safe as you are." Bill honestly replied. _"Not at all."_

The boy seemed a little unconvinced, but he was hardly in a position to argue with the demon. Oh well, at least he was naïve enough to trust him in the slightest. He was lucky the boy did not seem overly damaged either. Of course he did not know the full-scale of his suffering, but the boy did not seem that bad off. No submissive overly behavior, paranoia, flinching. It seemed he had his mother's spirit. But that too could be broken after a time.

The one thing he had wanted in return from Mabel was simple. An heir. Someone who could do most of his dirty work while he could go off doing his own thing. Someone who would render the Pines helpless. After all, how could Mabel try to destroy her own flesh and blood? It wouldn't happen. The kid was his meal ticket to leaping miles ahead of the family, and then running laps around them!

So not only would he fulfill his deal of keeping the boy safe and away from Gideon, he would have time to place an influence over him. Mabel on the other hand would not be as lucky. In her desperation, she had not mentioned being saved herself. Only her precious son would escape unharmed. Son...

Bill now curiously studied the boy's features. He really did look like his uncle. Nearly the same hair colour, possibly lighter under all of that grime, and he had the same coloured eyes as the rest of the Pines family. Sometimes the demon wondered if there had ever been someone without brown eyes. Then a startling realization came to him; That wasn't really his eye colour, the boy was wearing contacts. That explained the blinking as if he were hiding tears. Not only that, the boy was pale. Sickly thin and pale. He was already small looking for his age, but he was also starving.

"Monty." He began, the name sounding strange coming from him, the king of nicknames.

The boy jumped a little. He was trying not to fall asleep, but still roused himself.

"When was the last time you and your mother ate? And take out those contacts. They're bad for your eyes if worn too long."

"I had to wear them because they made me look more like my uncle. " He said with a yawn. "Eat? A week, maybe two. I think mom hasn't eaten for three."

The boy imagined a mirror, and quickly pulled out the irritating little cells. Eyes now free, he blinked a few more times as the burning went away and he was able to see properly once more. Now he stared up at the blond with blue-grey eyes, eerily similar to his own but the demon simply waved that off. It probably just came from his father.

"You need something to eat then." He stated obviously.

This caught his attention and Monty glared at him, trying to figure out what angle he was working at.

"All right, you caught me on that one." He fake surrendered. "I don't want you to keel over dead from starvation. That was my ultimate plan all along."

Monty's expression softened in the slightest, but returned as he looked back at the floor.

Waving a hand, the demon gave him a plate with some bread.

"You can't have anything too rich after starving, you'll end up dead either way." He explained.

Monty took a hesitant nibble, disliking the feeling as the demon carefully watched him. Eventually, his eyes flitted else where, bored with the whole endeavour. Monty took another bite. Seeing as whatever poison he would have put in it didn't have immediate effects, Monty decided he may as well die full. Quickly, he polished off the remaining slices glad it at least helped ward off the fatigue.

Now he was able to more carefully observe the demon. He could easily see why his mother had warned him not to trust him. He was charismatic for someone so evil, and he did have a Willy Wonka air to him. Hopefully he didn't own a chocolate factory to boot. His thoughts were cut though by the demon saying;

"Look kid, I have important evil master of the mind stuff that I need to work on, so stay here. And don't do anything completely idiotic. So just stay right there. Right. There."

"I get it." Monty brushed off. "I won't do anything like switch your hat with a different one or destroy the whole universe."

"Don't be so sure about that." He muttered darkly before vanishing.

* * *

><p>Having finished off a few of the more tedious jobs of being a demon, he was now ready to check up on his currently favourite mortal. He needed to iron out a few details on what this deal entitled him to, and how to put what he was taking in return without sending Mabel in to hysterics. Bill was not a fan of those who couldn't cope with what they'd just agreed to. But he was fairly certain she would be more grateful that she had saved her son from Gideon to be overly worried about anything else.<p>

He found the brunette absently staring out a window in the attic bedroom of the Mystery Shack. All of her remained frozen except for the tears slowly trailing down her face as she sat there. He tried not to let his mind dwell on the sad sight, he had no reason left to feel anything for her let alone sympathy.

Instead, blond cleared his throat. She jumped and turned to face him with a growing dread, but as soon as Mabel realized he was not Gideon she sprung to her feet and leaped at the man. Catching him in a strangling hug, she sobbed in to his jacket, repeating the same phrase over again;

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Bill rigidly stood there, unsure of how to respond. He wanted to return it, but at the same time he wanted nothing more than to push her away and stated the exact details of their deal, leaving her more broken than he had ever been. Additionally, he didn't know how she would react if he tried to hug her, so he instead remained still as she held on to him.

"Our deal then?" He asked in a much more subdued tone than expected.

"Still there as long as you'll keep him safe from that monster!" She begged. Mabel knew nothing in the world would ever persuade the demon to save her as well, so the least she could do was keep her only child safe. No matter the cost.

_"Him? Or me?" _The demon wondered in amusement. He was tempted to ask her that, but decided it was not in his best interest to do so. "Of course. I'll keep mini-Pine Tree away from Gideon. I won't let the marshmallow peep harm a single hair on your kid's look-alike head. Deal?"

Mabel now let go of him, and stared down at his hand. Without hesitation she shook it, this sealing the deal. As she did she shivered. What was the cost of keeping her little boy safe?

"Nothing overly outrageous." The demon supplied, knowing what she was thinking. "Now what are we agreeing on letting the kid know? Anything I should rub in- I mean avoid mentioning to him?"

"G-Gideon, and Dipper."

"Why his uncle?"

"He hates being compared to him because of how they look. Gideon still blames Dipper for everything, and when he found out I had a son who looked exactly like him..."

Mabel trailed off, shivering at the memories. If he had mentioned it once, he had a thousand times. Hysteria was not Bill's favourite thing to deal with, so he decided not to bother asking for details. After all, he could find out anything he wanted on his own for the most part. Besides, he had other things he could mull over. Like the fact that he now had a for sure way to stop that kid from bothering him too much, and how Mabel was driven to the breaking point of in trusting him of all demons with the life of her son. She hadn't even asked for his word not to hurt him. Not that the blond planned on doing anything completely terrible, but still.

"What are you even doing in the Shack anyways?" He inquired trying not to let the silence linger along with her thoughts.

Mabel looked at him like the mad man he truly was under his yellow suit and bow tie. Then she pointed out the window and on to the horizon. Off in the fading daylight construction could be made out, highlighting the area as where the new Gideon Land would be. The Shack was still deep in the woods, far away from anyone and everyone. Especially Gideon.

The albino had already searched the building for her, and would be too lazy to check the same place twice. She would be safe here for the time being, until there was a way to escape Gravity Falls with what she needed to get back from the former child star, and without being caught. Until then she was essentially trapped in Gravity Falls on her own. The demon took this with indifference. Her just deserts came in the form of having to remain here with Gideon it seemed.

Before he could reply to what he had seen, the demon found himself enveloped in yet another hug. This one much less desperate than the last. He didn't return it yet again, but she seemed unbothered by this. If he had reciprocated he doubted she would be anywhere as calm as she was now. It was surprising enough that she would even look him in the eyes after all he had done let alone want to touch him.

Mabel seemed to realize whom she was hugging as well. She had vowed she would never give the monster the pleasure of holding her in his arms again, yet there she was. Right away the brunette let go of the demon and pushed him away from her as if he had been the one who had tried to come anywhere near her.

"Get out!" She quietly hissed.

'You don't have to tell me twice."

The blond turned around, planning on vanishing back in to thin air once more, but before he could, she softly called after him;

"Bill?"

"Yes?"

"When I said thank you, I really meant it."

He only nodded in response. The last thing he saw before he returned was the woman returning to her place by the window as one more tear slid down her cheek.


	3. Deception

**Some more background information for you in this chapter, helping flesh out the entire situation. But this plot is going to be a little faster moving than previous stories, so it's to be expected.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>The demon returned to the imaginary version of the Shack once more, just outside of the room with the electron carpet. He entered, and found that Monty had curled up on the couch and was fast asleep. The boy's breaths looked painful, more like a fight with gravity than anything. Seeing how scrawny and underfed he looked there only put more strain on the fact that Gideon had been an absolute monster to the kid. As much as the man would have prefered to leave Monty sleeping, he had to stay awake for a bit so they could talk. Shaking his shoulders, he quietly called;<p>

"Kid. Get up."

"I'm sorry please don't hurt me!" Monty screamed in one breath as he tumbled off of the couch.

He landed on his back, and found that Bill was staring down at him. If he was curious, the demon didn't ask. Instead the blond offered him a hand to help him off of the floor. The boy looked at him mistrustfully, this trick had been played on him by Gideon before, and he would never let him fall for it again! Instead he stood up on his own, and brushed himself off, all while keeping an eye on the demon.

"You're back." He stated.

"How observant of you." The blond drawled with a roll of his eyes. "I've just sealed the deal with your mother."

"W-what does that mean?" Monty nervously asked, wanting nothing more to wake up from this huge nightmare.

"It means you're hanging around with me until we solve your mother's marshmallow problem."

"W-with you?" He squeaked, backing away from the demon. "Why can't she be here too?"

Bill shrugged.

"Was never part of the deal."

"I c-can't stay with you! You're crazy and evil! Plus you're a demon! Doesn't that mean you've sold your soul or something?"

"So what? I love kids!" The demon lied. "Everyone loves kids!"

Monty looked at him unimpressed. It didn't really seem that way to him. Bill reminded himself that the last person who he had been around him happened to be Gideon. Anyone would find it hard to belive after that.

"You look more like you'd enjoy invading their nightmares."

"I'm offended! There's more to being a dream-demon than that!" The demon gasped in pretend hurt while clutching his chest for dramatic effect.

"Like what?" Mabel's son challenged, shyness fading away.

"What if I told you I knew all the secrets of the universe because I'm a dream-demon?"

The boy brightened at this, and quickly asked;

"What are marshmallows made of?"

"Human souls."

"Did aliens build the pyramids?"

"Did aliens not build the pyramids?"

"How do fortune cookies work?"

"Simple psychology. They tell you something will happen, and it becomes true because you attribute the similarities to the cookie."

"Where do babies come from?" The boy asked with wide, unknowing eyes.

Bill paled slightly at the question, and began to trip over his words.

"Ummm... Interesting question kid... Errr... Defiently _not_ from a stork."

"How old are you?"

Bill paused his steady stream of answers for a moment, then decisively stated;

"Old enough."

"But how old is that?"

"Old enough to be your father."

The boy's teasing grin faded at this, as did the demon's when he realized he must have slipped up in mentioning that. But that didn't halt the questions the demon now had regarding Monty, and everything that had happened to him and his mother during the time he had chosen to stop watching the Pines.

"You're not though." Monty insisted, more to himself than Bill.

"Gee, what gave it away?" He sarcastically asked. "The fact that I'm a demon and you already have a father?"

"I'm sorry!" He squeaked, flinching out of instinct.

The demon frowned slightly at his suddenly fearful reaction. He could distract the kid all he wanted from the trauma, but it always seemed to return with the slightest indication that he had been bothered by the boy. How was he supposed to get anywhere with him acting like that?

"You didn't do anything wrong." He said with a hint of irritation creeping into his tone. "But I'll admit to being curious. Who is your dad?"

"I-I don't know who he is." The boy quietly replied. It was the truth. Sort of.

The demon tilted his head at this, instinctively intrigued by this tiny revelation from the little boy. He had been surprised to say the least when he sensed that Mabel needed his help, but even more so when he discovered the little boy hiding between her legs. What had the woman been up to in her absence from Gravity Falls? A son? Was she married now? Was it just a way to spite him, prove that the past was the past? And overwhelming desire to find out how this child came to be conceived was now listed on the demon's agenda of things to do.

"You don't know?"

"M-mom's never spoken about h-him before." Monty said, continuing to stutter as he frightfully stared up at the demon.

"She hasn't spoken about him before?" Bill inquired.

Monty allowed a shadow of a smile to cross his face, and even dared to joke;

"Are you sure you're not actually a parrot?"

"Certain..."The blond absently replied.

He trailed, not really paying attention anymore as his interest was focused two were silent for a moment, neither knowing what to say to the other. Once more Bill speculated about who the kid's father was, while Monty avoided looking at him.

Studying the boy's features, all the demon could think was that he looked like a carbon copy of Dipper Pines. Then again, Dipper and Mabel looked very similar with a few glaring exceptions that defined masculinity or femininity. It could easily he said that Monty held a great likeness to his mother as well, baring only a few differences.

His eyes of course, they were a watery blue-grey, practically colourless. They reminded the demon of someone else's, but he was not sure who. After all, there were plenty of human beings that had the same eye colour as him. Heck, even he had the same coloured eyes! His build was the same scrawny Dipper Pines, if not a little worse due to the circumstances he had been placed in. Monty's hair had a mixture of the Pines' chocolate-brown, and some lighter near blond that made it look lighter as a whole.

After staring at him for a while, Bill realized how scruffy and cut up the boy looked. He was rather worse for wear, which should have come as no surprise to him. Yet for some reason it still did. Could it be because he was only noticing these things about Monty now? It probably was, considering he found that he tended to be more patient, yet less observant in his human body. His boundless energy seemed to slow down as well when trapped in the confines of it as well, not that the demon really minded any more.

Sometimes it was nice to be able to concentrate on other objectives outside of any deal he might make. The blond found that a little extra focus could do him real good at times, not that he had a choice being trapped in his human form. As much as the dream-demon would like to blame for that, Bill knew that deep down it was his own fault for never learning how to reverse the effects of having a permanent body instead of possessing some one else's.

Yet his human form was also a way to have reigns over his sanity. While in his energetic demon form nothing was clear, everything felt like one gigantic blur as time fled by, and he had to keep up with everything or risk his limitless powers overwhelming him. Here was his way to finally slow down, and be freed from what he had always thought as insanity. A blessing and a curse. Sort of like how taking on this kid would be.

Sure he would have his good points, the demon could already tell from the few conversations he'd had with Monty. The dirty-blond didn't talk all that much like a kid, and didn't always act like he was one either. Maturity would be a very helpful key in helping him reach full potential. He was intelligent, and seemed like he had been rather bold and maybe even crafty at one time. He could probably flip on the cute charm like his mother if needed. But there was no doubt that most of his boldness and self-preservance had been beaten out of him.

The man winced at the thought. Contrary to what many would have thought, everything Gideon had inspired in the child was exactly what he did not need. Submissive behavior was starting to show now despite what he had assumed earlier, as was Mabel's son's sudden fears of being hurt if he sensed that he had displeased him in some way or another.

Bill didn't want some sort of soulless, hollow-eyed puppet that did his every bidding, nor did he want to press the boy in to some sort of hellish uncontrollable force by making him snap. What the demon was aiming for was almost in between the two, yet not quite. A force to he reckoned with, yet could think and make decisions on his own. Someone who would look up to him, yet still not be overly soft. Maybe even twist him slightly in to a little homage of himself. He smiled almodt wolfishly at the thought. That would show Mabel how he could still take away everything from her no matter where the brunette ran in an attempt to escape him.

A soft whimper broke his train of thoughts. He realized why as he continued to stare down at Monty. Anyone would feel slightly nervous after being looked at for so long, but the boy did even more so as he had no idea what would be coming for him next.

What was he supposed to do? He had escaped with his mother, and he knew that they were both safe from Gideon. The boy would always be grateful for that. He loathed the albino, despised him. Why did he always have to be so mean to him and his mother? What had he ever done to make Gideon hate him so much? At first he thought that he could possibly get along with the man when they first came to Gravity Falls.

This summer he and his mother had been staying in a small hotel at the time when they had first run in to the strange man. While his mother had seemed rather stiff and formal around him, the boy had no idea why. When he asked, his mother didn't reply. So instead he tried to make his best impression whenever he and his mother ran in to him. Yet come to think of it, often times they did run in to him more than not.

Each time seemed to leave Mabel a bit more distressed despite nothing threatening ever happening. Gideon either choose to ignore Monty, or sneer down at him when he did acknowledge the boy's presence. Even though Mabel was bothered by this she chose not to leave Gravity Falls. The boy had no idea why if she was left so uncomfortable by their encounters. She seemed to be searching for something, but always found a way to distract him from any questions he might have.

After all, Gravity Falls was a big change from Piedmont California. Monty decided he prefered the quirky little town over the boring suburbs where nothing happened. There was always some spectacle or sight of some sort in the town. Not in the least like the small boring town where nothing happened it pretended to be.

Not to mention the amazing natural surroundings. He would have loved to explore the gigantic forest that surrounded the town too, but his mother happened to be adamant on staying out of it. She had always insisted that there were dangerous creatures like the gnomes living in the woods, but Monty had always thought that was simply a tall tale.

But he had thought the same about his mother's stories detailing her summer times spent in Gravity Falls. After all, why would a town celebrate Halloween in the middle of summer, and carve out watermelons instead of pumpkins? Yet for all he knew, it could have been true.

She showed him the Mystery Shack, where his uncle supposedly lived. Monty had never actually met his uncle Dipper before, but he had heard much about him. His mother often refered to him as her other half. Monty had been eager to meet the man, yet it turned out he had gone on a trip to South America, and there was a strange man running the business in his absence.

Monty had been a bit disappointed at first, because he really wanted to meet the man who seemed to impressive, and everyone related him to. But Soos was just as good, and was always hilarious. The man-child was instantly in awe of Monty, and gave him a free tour of the Mystery Shack despite the fact that Stanford Pines would be rolling in his grave.

As far as he was concerned, the stories he had been told about Gravity Falls were as real as could be. And he really would have liked to encounter some sort of supernatural force like his mom and uncle. But as it turned out, the only encounter he would make would be with Gideon.

When he woke up in their room one morning, his mother was gone. The boy had frantically checked with the front desk, and through the rest of the hotel, yet found nothing. Knowing what to do in this situation he called the police, but when they came they did almost nothing! They were both completely useless, and giggled like a few of the annoying girls in his first grade class. When he finally got them to write down the specifics on his mother, they froze as he gave her name and his own. Before the boy knew it, he was being marched by them to their police car and driven off somewhere.

Things only went even farther down hill from there. Monty didn't know where he had been taken, but the boy suddenly found himself staring up at a very annoyed Gideon.

_"And what are you doing here?"_

_Gideon practically towered above Monty, and looked down the length of his rounded nose at Monty in the most condescending and disagreeable way possible, his nearly colourless blue-grey eyes narrowed at him. The boy was greatly intimidated by this, but tried not to let any fear show despite his current circumstances. He had held everything together even though his mother was gone, and he could certainly do it now. _

_"M-my m-mom's gone missing, and the police just brought me here for some reason."_

_"Why your motha' isn't missing, she's been here with me."_

By here with him, the man meant he had actually kidnapped her, and now that Monty knew that, he couldn't leave either. Gideon had only locked him in a room at first, but the next days that passed changed this. The man had taken him and forced him to sit in the bathtub. Then his hair had been died a dark brown by him. The albino wouldn't even let him close his eyes to keep away the stinging chemicals, any time he did the man pulled at his hair.

Monty tried to protest this at first, he couldn't just do that to him! But the first few slaps across the face were more than enough to subdue him.

Then the man had forced him to wear coloured contacts, which were already too big for him to wear, and hurt his eyes. But if he blinked too much or tried to take them out the man had lectured him on how ungrateful he was being for receiving something as expensive as contacts. Monty had often times cried at first, he just wanted his mother back and to leave forever. Why did the man hate him so much? But that too was torn away from him, as he learned that crying only made the man more inclined to hurt him.

One day as he struggled through all of the pain, he was finally able to ask that very question. But all the man did was laugh in response, and call him by his uncle's name, stating that it was his fault that Mabel didn't love him, and that he would be sorry for ever crossing him. And he was sorry, even if it was for something he had never done. He was sorry over and over and over again as the days dragged on.

Monty shivered. At least he and his mother had escaped from him. She seemed even worse than he was, a haunted air followed Mabel as she lead them through the forest to a place she said would be safe. Then Bill had shown up, followed by those gnomes. If it had been under any other circumstance Monty would have been ecstatic to finally discover real magical creatures, but then it was just terrifying.

He had stood there on a tree branch, hugging the trunk of it for dear life. Yet somehow he had been pushed away from it, and just barely held on to the limb on time. He had screamed as he came face to face with another man. His eyes looked exactly like Gideon's, but realized it was not him soon after. His face was nothing like Gideon's chubby round one, and he wasn't sickly pale like the albino. More sharp and mischievous, yet dangerous all at the same time.

And now he had to trust the man who his mother had called worse than Gideon. He had received a bare glance of his bad side already, and had no plans to try and provoke someone who was so dangerous. The demon had been willing to send him falling to his death mere hours ago, yet now talked to him as if he could be trusted.

"You can trust me kid." Bill lied.

"I know." Mabel's son lied in return, crossing his fingers. "Promise?"

Crossing his fingers as well, he shook hands with him.

"Promise."


	4. Distrust

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

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><p><em>"Promise."<em>

Monty stood there, still feeling uncomfortable as he was pinned under the demon's gaze. Did he fall for his lie at all? Or was the demon aware of what he had done? It seemed like he had not. The boy dreaded what would have happened to him if he was. Gideon had hated whenever he lied to him...

"So what can I do to prove you can trust me?" The demon finally asked, as if contemplating something.

"You have no idea what trust is do you? You can't just buy my trust, it has to be earned. That's what trust is."

"Big words coming from a seven year old."

Monty retorted with something, but Bill's short attention span had flown elsewhere. A curious expression crossed the demon's features as he heard something. Someone, calling is name. Irately calling him and telling him to come out from wherever he was hidding.

"This is going to be interesting." He said with a grim smile.

"W-what is?"

The man crouched down so he was at eye level with Monty. Carefully, he rested a hand on the boy's thin shoulder, and asked in a firm voice;

"Can you trust me on my word about not letting you get hurt?"

"Y-yes." The boy replied after some thought.

"Perfect. "

The demon stood up with his arm still resting on the dirty-blond's shoulder. The Mystery Shack hallway vanished and gave away to an extensive plane of white. Standing barely a few meters away from them was none other than Gideon Gleeful. As soon as the boy say his tormentor his heart froze. He began to shake all over, and slowly tried to back away from the albino. But the blond's grip on him only became more vice-like as he nudged the boy closer to him.

Panick swirled in his gut as he realized how badly betrayed he had just been by the demon. And this was his first and only time he had ever dared place his trust in him! Why hadn't he listened to what his mother had told him? It was his own fault for thinking the familiar man seemed like he could be trusted. And now look where he had ended up!

"You rang?" The demon asked.

Gideon ignored him, and instead narrowed his eyes at Monty.

"There you are ya' little whelp!"

Monty could only whimper in reply, attempting to hide behind the demon.

"Bill if you don't mind I'll be taking back my son."

"This kid's yours? And Shooting Star's?" The demon wondered, disgusted yet curious at the same time. Would Mabel actually do... That with Gideon willingly?

"Not by blood of course, I was probably still in jail 'round the time she got knocked up, but he is in a technical sense."

"So do you know who his father is then? Does anyone actually know this?"

"I thought ya' knew lot's of things." The frake psychic mocked.

"I'm a dream-demon not a paternity test. I try to avoid observing... That kind of stuff."

"Yes, yes that's great. My son please?"

Bill glared at him. He was certain Gideon would be the only person who ever had enough gall to order a dream-demon around. As if he would actually listen to anything the albino had to say to him.

"Well as much as I'd _love _to help out a friend who has never ever broken a deal with me before and I am very fond of because of this, I can't."

"And why not?" He asked with a sarcastic eye roll.

"Because I'm not supposed to let you harm a hair on his head according to his mother. I suppose that means you could harm every single bone in his body, but that's a small technicality I'll have to over look." Bill explained.

"Since when do you do anything someone tells you to do?"

"Since there's something in it for me of course. Touch him and you'll be in for a shock."

"What kind of shock?" The albino inquired, reaching out a hand to ruffle the boy's hair.

"A literal one!" Bill laughed as Gideon was fried with several volts of electricity.

Surprised to find out that his tormentor was powerless against him, Monty made a few immature (Or rather, mature considering his age.) Faces at the fraudulent psychic and stuck out his tongue. Even Bill had to admit it was funny to see as Gideon recovered from the shock and glared down at his "son."

"I'll be back." He hissed. "This isn't over. Not at all..."

Gideon vanished, and they returned to the hall outside of the break room in the Shack once again. Shaking slightly, the boy sat down, leaning against the wall. Staring at his still trembling hands, he took a few shallow yet calming breaths, cradling his head in between his knees. Bill sat down across the hall and grinned.

"I told you that you could trust me."

"Y-you're crazy!" Monty practically sobbed.

He shrugged.

"I thought we already went over that."

The boy looked up to face him, and apprehension flitted across his face.

"D-do you think he'll be back?"

"Marshmallow peep is persistent, so he'll probably be back." The blond sagely replied.

"Marshmallow peep?" Monty smiled, recovering from his scare.

"Didn't I tell you that marshmallows were made out of human souls?" The blond joked.

"They're made of jelatin, and you said Gideon doesn't have a soul."

"It's a metaphor."

"No it's not."

"Yes it is. He shot back.

"No it isn't." The dirty-blond insisted.

"Yes it is."

"No!"

"Yes!

"No!

"Yes!"

"Fine! Then how is it a metaphor?"

"Metaphor? Who said anything about it being a metaphor? Gideon being a marshamllow peep despite not having a soul isn't a metaphor for anything. "

"See? I told you so!" The boy triumphantly declared.

"Of course you did." The demon said with a roll of his eyes. "Now go take a shower, you're a pig sty."

Monty looked down at himself and realized for the first time that he was a mess, and was covered under a fair layer of dirt. He had not been alowed to keep clean before. The last time when he had a bath must have at least been a month ago, back when Gideon had first dyed his hair brown... Would he really be permittted to stay clean? Hopefully looking up at the demon, he didn't sense that he was lying to him at all.

With this realization he now let himself smile, and run down the hall and up the rickety stair case. Already being familiar with the Mystery Shack thanks to Soos, he found the bathroom without any trouble. As soon as he heard the door lock shut, Bill stood up with a grin.

That was one distraction that would temporarily be out of his way. Now was the time to check up on Mabel again. The time elapsed in the dreamscape was different from that in the real world, a day or two would have passed. After all, he didn't want the two of them to remain any closer lest she keep reminding the boy he was not to be trusted.

It was best just to go see her without telling Monty, or letting him know that he had left peroid. The man was fully aware that Monty had not been very convinced that he could be trusted, thanks to what Mabel had pressed on him earlier. And he would admit to not always acting like the most reliable person to put your trust in, but this was the one time he was going to really convince someone to put faith in him. He would get nowhere with the kid if there was no trust.

But the brief warning Mabel had given her son, and the deadly combination of Gideon was enough to make this seem near impossible. If he could find a way to make it sound like Mabel now wanted Monty to put his trust in him, so much tension could he alleviated. He would go with out Monty this time, but the confrontation between mother and son seemed inevitable.

But with this new plan inthe master manipulator's mind, he concentrated on appearing somewhere close to Mabel. He did so with his usual silent approach, stealthily appearing next to her old childhood bed in the worn attic of the Mystery Shack.

The entire room was cold in the now fading afternoon light, and it seemed almost lifeless and devoid of colours. The warped wooden panels that made the ceiling, walls, and floor were a saturated, and splintered grey. The room had been sealed by Stan after the twin's most recent visit to Gravity Falls. After he had died, Dipper had taken possession of the Mystery Shack and remained in the small town. But he had left the room of his sister's and his own summer memories untouched.

One half plus the closet was still devoted to all sorts of mismatched parts of attractions and displays. Boxes and junk piled on top on one and other, still in the same position Stan had shoved them in when he had cleared out the attic during their first summer visit when they were twelve.

Dipper's bed was on one side of the room while Mabel's was on the other, both broken and as dusty as they had been when they were first placed there. A few things belonging to the twins that they had choosen to leave there still remained as well. Outdated magazines, belonging to both Dipper and Mabel. Dipper's often revolving around mysteries and the paranormal, while Mabel's were the usual teen girl tabloids. The covers were glazed and faded, just barely showing the dates they had been published. Stray stocks poked out from under Dipper's bed, along with a few crumbled scraps of note paper regarding past adventures lay abandoned. Mabel's side of the room was a bit neater, the occasional sparkle of glitter mixing in with the dust that lay one the floor.

A chilling wind rattled the traingular window pane, as if to signify that fall was on it's way. The demon could practically see his breath as he stood in the freezing, lonely room of left behind tails and trails. It almost made him want to shiver, staring at such a depressing sight. He didn't. Instead Bill focused his attentions on Mabel, who lay between the covers of her bed, shivering. With no consideration towards the brunette, he gave her thinning shoulders a shake. Immediately she was awake, but realized that it was not her nightmares that were standing above her. It was someone worse.

"Don't do that!" She squeaked in what was supposed to be a harsh tone.

Bill gave an apathetic shrug.

"How else was I suposed to wake you up?" The demon asked.

Mabel just shook her head in a mix of emotions, while wrapping the blankets farther around her in an effort to stay warm. Noticing how cold she looked, the blond added with a malicious grin;

"If you wanted I could have thrown a bucket of ice water on you instead."

"I'm fine for that thank you. " She quickly inclined.

"That's what I thought." He replied with a smirk.

She could only shiver at his expression. The man took note of this. She was still terrified of him deep down, that was always reassuring. But with this he also noticed the state that Mabel was in. Despite what Monty had said about her eating she looked better off than her son. But only in that respect. She had kept most of her figure and full lips, her face was far from hollow, yet she still looked worse off. Her hair was starting to look like a wild mess, and her rosy cheeks were even more flushed with the signs of her battling a temperature of some sort.

While her face showed no signs of harm, it looked like there could have been some brusing benath her neck. But the demon could not tell for sure because the neck of her sweater blocked most views of Iit. Come to think of it, that was another strange thing. Why was she wearing a sweater modeled after the likeness of her older ones? Was it some sort of twisted idea of Gideon's? But by far the worst thing possible had to be her eyes.

The once chocolate-brown eyes that sparkeled with so much vivacity and life had dimmed down to nothing more than mere mud. All that innocence and cheer had been replaced with defeat and the coming battle of sickness. She looked terrible, nothing like the Mabel Pines he had been so closely familiar with. What had that monster done to her?

It was because of his, the demon decided it was worth while to at least help her with this. Of course he had only told himself that he was doing this so she would not die on him. The last thing he needed was a dead body and a sad child. If he were to let her slip away he'd most likely loose his chances at winning over Monty as well. Even if he was planning on rarely letting the mother and son see each other.

"Stay awake. " He instructed as the woman turned on her side once more.

"Why should I?" She yawned.

"Because I don't know how sick you are."

"That's great." Mabel partially mumbled in to the sheets.

"If you die I'll be the one taking care of your son. Me. Bill Cipher. Disliker of children. Evil dream-demon. Invader of nightmares."

The brunette snapped awake at this.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Of course I would. Which is why you need to stay awake and let me take inventory on your injuries."

Mabel groaned slightly, but still got off of her side and sat near the back of the bed with her back placed against the wall.

"Not to insult your fashion choices or anything, but you're going to have to take off that sweater."

"Gideon made me wear it." She sighed. "And I'm not wearing anything under it. So I can't-"

She took in a sharp intake of air as the demon suddenly pulled her out of the sweater, exposing her to the cold and his ever-watchful eyes. She tried to cover herself up and push away from him as he stared at her, but it was more of a futile fight if anything. Once she let it settle in her mind that he was only trying to help her, she managed to calm down. But this did not stop her from bristling as his finger tips brushed her bare skin as they searched for injuries.

The man survied her with a medical profession, not lust as he let his eyes relentlessly comb over her. He found finger marks near her collar bone, and there were a few sharp bruises near the bottom of her rib cage. Luckily there was no internal damadge done to her other than obvious signs of being hurt by someone else in one way or another. But with a tiny prod to each flare of pain the wounds vanished, only leaving their pain behind.

The demon supposed he could have healed her, and not let the sensation of the pain they caused linger as well, but he would much rather have her be out of danger yet still in pain. The pain each wound had caused would heal inthe time the normally injuries would have. Now that this had been taken care of, he gave her a final once over and asked;

"Anything I missed?"

"Nothing you can fix." Mabel bitterly replied.

Hearing the sudden change of tone in her voice, the man looked at her with a hint of concern. Not that he would ever admit to being concerned for the likes of her.

"Shooting Star?"

"It's not something you can just wave your hand and fix. Leave it at that."

"Mabel." He insisted in a more forceful tone.

Hearing the demon use her real name only served to make her more upset, and snap at him.

"Gideon got what he wanted from me alright?! Not only that, he's gotten everything else he's wanted except for Dipper dead and those stupid journals back! There's nothing you can fix, and even if you could stop Gideon, which I'm not as certain you can anymore, you'd much rather wait things out before swooping in at the opportune moment!"

The man had no reply for this. After all, how was he supposed to comfort her on something like this when he had easily been just as heinous to her?

"What makes you think I might not be able to defeat him?" He growled in response.

Once more Mabel stared at him like the orchastrative monster of a mad-man he was.

"How do you think he got out of jail? How do you think he managed to take over a town over night and hurt me and my son without any questions?"

"You're not seriously suggesting that he's a demon now are you?"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting! How else would he-"

"Fine. You're right." He grudgingly admitted. "It would explain a bit actually."

Through her tears Mabel glared at him in suspicion.

"Explain what?"

"A few things." He off-handedly replied. "Seeing how our deal is still intact and Pine Tree the second still lives it's none of your concern."

"I suppose it would be too much to ask to see Monty?" She sadly sighed.

"Of course it is. And speaking of which, I need to go back and make sure that he hasn't gone and destroyed the universe or messed with time. If anyone's doing that, it should be me."

Mabel said something in reply to this, but it didn't matter. He had already vanished in to thin air. The woman gave another defeated sigh. Why had all of this happened to her? She slipped her sweater back on, it was the only thing she had left to wear. There had to be a way to stop Gideon. But before she could contemplate that she needed to get some more rest.


	5. Decisions

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>After all the hijinks of the past few days, things had finally seemed to settle down for Monty. Regular meals, he could stay clean, and he was allowed to mainly rest through most of his time spent with Bill. The demon of course had no problem with this, as long as Mabel's son was able to get by he was fine. Monty would need a little time to recover before he would decide to become more needy, and demand more of his precious time and attention. Even if he didn't trust him fully.<p>

Of course the blond was completely aware that Monty had been lying when he decided that he could trust him. Bill had years of practice at lying, so it was always easy for him to tell when someone else was lying back to him. It was a good thing, otherwise the demon would most likely have of his schemes all unravel on him. And he definitely did not need that happening to himself.

So after dwelling on it for a few days, he decided the best way to earn his trust was to erase that cause of his distrust. Not actually doing anything to Mabel of course, nor keeping him away from his mother. He would take the boy to see her, prove to Mabel that he didn't have anything up his sleeves, and hope that she would give Monty the impression that he could in fact be trusted. If not...

Well there would be some complications, that was for sure. But he would take the risk this time around.

He had designated Monty the attic bedroom as his own to sleep in, which he readily accepted, only a small hesitation evident. The blond found himself being thanked over and over again by him, showing how truly grateful he was just to have somewhere to sleep. He did so almost desperately, tailing around the man until he had replied with a curt; You're welcome. After that Monty was satisfied to take the bedroom all for himself.

This was whete the demon was now headed, deciding that it was about time that he and his mother should have a small reunion. He didn't look anywhere near as sick now, and the shower he had taken helped get rid of all the grime he had been covered in.

Now Monty looked more like his own person, and not just like a complete replica of the Pines Twins. Brown hair with a few lighter blond strands making it more fair than his mother's, and his striking eyes. Hopefully this would prove to Mabel that he didn't have intentions of being just as bad to her son as Gideon was.

Climbing up the winding stairs to the attic, he found the boy not resting in his room, but sitting in the window seat, which gave a view of the yard from the triangular-shaped window. He was curled up with a book, intently reading it's contents. He didn't want to startle the boy once more, but as per usual it looked to be inevitable. Bill cleared his throat, and Monty flinched before looking up at him. Now aware of the demon's presence, the boy made his book vanish in to thin air with a small wave of his hands. The demon obersved this with surprise.

"How do you know how to do that?" The blond asked in surprise.

"You as good as told me when I asked how everything going on was possible, remember?" The dirty-blond replied, now sitting up to face him.

Bill nodded, hiding a smile at this. Clever of him. But the demon also knew that there was a little more truth behind it than he was willing to divulge.

"Impressive. You really deduced all of that on your own? You must have your uncle's deductive skills."

The demon knew it was not a topic he was supposed to bring up according to Mabel, but he had a sneaking suspicion on why. She knew that he would discover that sooner or later, Monty now hated being compared to Dipper. Especially considering how Gideon viewed him as a miniature of Dipper. The blond was certain the boy would do everything in his power to prove that he was nothing like the man who had unintentionally caused him so much pain.

"It wasn't just that!" Mabel's son quickly corrected. "Mom always told stories about Gravity Falls, and I noticed some similarities between this one story and here."

"Was I in them?" Bill wondered, hoping the distrust was not deep-rooted.

"A little." He slowly began. "But you're a lot less insane then mom says you are. And you're not really triangular-shaped either."

"You mean like this?" He asked, imagining that he was in demonic form once more.

Monty gave a startled squeak at this, and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Y-yea, like t-that." He managed to reply.

"It's still me, you don't have to worry."

At this he relaxed. And then Bill's hat was suddenly replaced with a much more pink, and feathery one. The demon gave a yelp of surprise and immediately pulled it off. Only to now find that his bow tie had somehow turned in to a hideous feather boa. And before he could react to that, he went from yellow to all the colours of the rainbow in a technicolour display that could put Mabel's dream-boys, Zyler and Craz to shame.

The demon had taken more than enough of Monty's imaginings, and instead turned human once more. He turned his had back to normal and placed it over his rainbow coloured hair, while his suit resumed it's normal yellow tone. Monty had been snickering at his appearance until the demon tied the boa around his neck instead. He scratched at it, and then began to sneeze.

"Hey! I'm allergic to feathers!" The boy sniffed, yanking away the boa.

"Whoops! Sorry 'bout that!" He hastily apologized, hoping the boy wouldn't see it as a deliberate attempt to hurt him. "You're not allergic to anything else are you?"

"Just nuts."

"Good to know. Anyways, it's your own fault for imagining me to look like that!"

"I couldn't help it!" He pleaded. "I asked mom what you looked like, and that's what she said!"

Leave it to Mabel to tell him he looked like one of her art projects. At least there was no glitter involved this time wround. There was only so much one demon could take after all.

"Speaking of her, I thought that you might want to see Sh- Mab- Your mom for a bit." The demon explained, having to correct what to call Mabel several times.

"Really?!" Monty hopefully asked, jumping up from his seat.

"Why would I lie about something like that? Of course you can!"

"It seems exactly like something you'd lie about." Monty baited, secretly testing his temper.

The demon frowned slightly, as if he was hurt by this. He knelt down so he was at the boy's height and rested a hand on his shoulder once more, ignoring as Monty flinched at the contact.

"I thought you trusted me." He attempted to guilt.

"I've heard a _lot _of stories about all the people who trusted you." The dirty-blond admitted.

"Have you ever heard any about me hurting a kid before? I have morals, no matter what your mother may have told you about me." The demon strained, annoyed that Mabel had cropped up as the main cause for his distrust.

"I don't know what to think." Monty supplied.

"Trust me, we'll be seeing your mother."

Without so much as a warning the world spun around him. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop the dizzy feeling. Monty felt an icy, nauseous feeling set in his stomach, and a sudden heavy weight was pressed upon his skinny chest. It felt as if he couldn't break, like someone was strangling him.

The nausea soon let up, but tye choking feeling did not. His lungs felt like they were on fire! What was happening? Cautiously, he dare risked opening this eyes. The cause of not breathing was Mabel. The woman hugged her son so tightly he could barely breath. Realizing the, the boy returned the hug even more fiercely.

Bill, who was watching this with a little bit of awkwardness cleared his throat.

"Thank you." Mabel softly said, letting go of her son.

"Don't mention it." He waved off. "You didn't seriously think I wouldn't let the two of you see each other did you?"

Both Pines looked at him with varrying degrees of skeptism.

"How come she can't just stay with us instead of here?" The little boy inoccently asked.

The adults looked at each other over Monty's head, sharing an expression, and all the reasons why they would not ge staying in the same place together. More so from Mabel than Bill, but it was there all the same. Finally, the brunette decided to excuse it with;

"Because our deal meant that he would keep you safe, not me."

The dirty-blond curiously looked between the two.

"Then how come you don't just make a second deal with him?"

"Two deals is two too many for you two to handle, you would find that to take care of two deals would be too much for your two." The man cryptically waved off.

"But you'll be in danger." Monty stated, looking up at his mother with wide eyes.

Mabel sighed and shook her head, then she gave the boy's hand a comforting squeeze.

"I know." She softly responded. "But there's nothing that we can do about it."

He gave a saddened sigh as well.

"I know..."

"Do you want me to give you some time alone to talk?" Bill asked, interrupting the mother-son talk once more.

Mabel gave him a look that seemed to say she didn't believe for a minute thst he would actually be giving them any privacy. But she still gave him the grace of a curt nod. The man did so in reply, and walked out of the attic bedroom, making sure to close the door behind him.

Now left to his own devices inside of the real Mystery Shack, Bill curiously wandered around the dilapidated building. It had been almost completely emptied by someone. Every last piece of furniture, scrap of paper, and falsified attraction. The gift shop had been all but torn appart. Shelves were barren, or laying splintered on the floor, the register had somehow been pried from it's spot on the counter. The only thing left in the room was the vending machine, which still glowed with electricity.

But the demon wondered how this could be possible, as when he tried to turn on the lights in Stan's office, it didn't work. Could it be faulty wiring? Some fluke in the circuts? Nothing else electric in the Shack worked as well. So how was this possible? Like the attic, the rest of the building was frigid, and felt grey and lifeless. It was almost like living inside of a haunted house, the closest thing Stan would ever get to a real attraction.

Coming to the kitchen, the demon took warry note of the fact that there was no food, but at least the water was still running. He closed the cupboards and waved his hands, Mabel would be stocked with enough non-perishables, and a few fresh foods for around a week or so. That being taken care of, he sat down at the kitchen table, the only other real piece of furniture that remained.

The sight of the one quirky and colourful building practically stripped down to it's foundations was far from a pretty one. It had such a life-sucking feel to it. She had not been lying when she said Gideon had already searched the Mystery Shack. Anyone could see that he would have no other reason to return to the place. This was why Mabel had taken refuge here, far away as possible from the albino's schemes. Yet, the demon wondered what they were.

Sure there were a few rituals that could turn one in to a demon, but not one of his power. That was unless he had persuaded one to willingly share or give some of it's powers to him, which did not seem very probable or likely. This was what he planned to do with Monty, once he gained his trust of course. He would need the boy to gradually set in to hid powers of course, but it could be done. The only other ritual he knew existed to turn someone so powerful involved... No, there was no way that it could be possible. Gideon could not have found a way to do that.

So what was the man up to then? And how? Bill supposed he would just have to go back and ask Mabel. The blond man got up from his spot, and smoothed out his golden-yellow suit. Then he returned back upstairs to the attic, just on time to hear the last remamanents of a conversation.

"So how has things with Bill been?" Mabel gently wondered.

"He's not too bad."

"Not too bad?"

"Well he doesn't pay all that much attention to me, he's usually pretending to be busy with dream-demon stuff."

For some unknown reason he felt a slight stab of guilt at hearing this. It wasn't like he was purposely trying to ignore Monty, he was just letting the kid get better own his own. Bill was ususlly the one inflicting pain, not healing it. Perhaps it was time to try to do a little more than half-argue with him?

"Well I'm happy as long as you are safe. It might be for the best if he isn't always around you."

"Why?"

Mabel blew out a long breath of air.

"Bill... He can be very charming when he wants to be. It's easy to forget that he's a ma- demon who always has a hidden motive."

"Did you trust him once before Mom?"

There was a tense silence, but the demon guessed she had nodded in reply to the boy's question. Here the man decided to make his entrance, before either one of them got the notation that he had been standing behind the door for their entire conversation.

"Back." He quietly announced himself.

The woman jumped slightly as she saw him leaning there on the threshold. Her eyes noticably glittered with barely surpressed tears as she tried to keep composed in front of them.

"Are we leaving already?" Monty sadly asked.

"Not quite kiddo, I need to talk with your mother for a moment."

The boy took the hint, exiting the room. But just for extra precautions, the demon waved a hand, making sure that there was no way he would be able to hear. Now he took a seat across from Mabel, sitting on Dipper's old bed. He stared intently at Mabel until he was certain she was uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Yes?" She finally stated.

"I heard the bit about me not paying much attention to him."

Mabel was unsurprised by this truth.

"I know."

"Don't tell me you just assumed I was listening the whole time!" He snapped with an exasperated gesture.

"I didn't." Mabel replied with a slight grin.

"Then how did you know?" He challenged.

"Did I ever tell you that there is an aura of menace that surrounds you? People can tell you're there from a mile away."

The demon could not help but laugh at her quip, no matter how inappropriate it seemed to be.

"I suppose that always explains how you knew I was there." He replied.

"It does." She quietly agreed. "But as you can clearly see, I'm not running from you."

The man looked her up and down, as if only confirming his suspicions. He felt a sudden wave of surprise. Followed by a violent onslaught of feelings as his eyes rested on her hands. A ring rested there, clearly a wedding band from it's elegance.

"No, you're not... But I'm certain you would have escaped from me already if there was anywhere for you to go"

She did not fail to see his eyes resting on the ring, and could easily guess what he was thinking.

"Would it relive your curiosity if I told you I'm married to Gideon?"

"Why don't you just take it off then?"

She snorted at the question.

"Would if I could. He found a way to stop me from taking it off."

Neither one talked for a moment, but it was the brunette who brought the conversation back to life for a moment.

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Pine Tree the Second."

"He's not Dipper, don't call him that." Mabel corrected.

"That kid is Pine Tree through-and-through, own person or not." Bill said with a shrug.

"What about him?"

"I don't know what to do with him. Am I supposed to be ignoring the kid so your son isn't put under my evil demonic influence from which there is no escape, as you so politely put it? Or should I be spending a little time with him so he's not too lonely or anything?"

"Don't ignore him please." The woman sighed in defeat. "It's not good for him, he'll never be able to trust any adult males if you keep up with whatever you're doing."

"And you're entrusting me of all people with that responsibility?" Bill scoffed.

"Look. For just this one time I'm putting the past behind myself and asking you for help. Couldn't you do the same?" She asked in clear resignation.

_"After all that? Is she really as naïve as to think I could ever put anything behind me? Of course not!"_

"Of course I could. Everything's past the both of us as of now."

The brunette gave a grateful smile at this. At least this one thing she could stop stressing about for now. Just one less little worry in an ocean of things to be panicking over.

"Would you want me to keep up with his schoolwork to keep him busy?" The demon asked, trying not to sound too eager at the opportunity she had just provided him with.

Still silly enough to think that he could ever put his losses behind him, and now asking him to teach her son. Bill was glad that there was still some of the old Mabel lingering within the woman. Didn't she realize that she had just given him permission to teach her son what ever he wanted?

"I hope things won't be going on for that long, but yes. Just as long as you don't teach him the truth about how things work, and the real histories kept hiden. As far as Monty knows, there is no eighth and a half president. And I would like to keep it that way. It would be best to stick with something basic really. Math and English."

"But English is so boring! Can't I just teach him-"

"No."

"Not even animal dentistry?" He practically begged.

"Is that just the polite way of saying yanking teeth out of some inocent deer?"

"Awww, come on! You're still not over that?!" Bill huffed. "It's a life skill!"

"No." Mabel insisted once more.

"Well how about the principles of scamming people? Your great-uncle would be pleased!"

"No. And is that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes. But are you sure I couldn't just-"

"Forget it."

The demon forced himself to sigh, concealing how ecstatic he really was. She had no idea what she had truly just agreed to.


	6. Danger

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>"Why is it that read rhymes with lead, and lead rhymes with read, but read and lead don't rhyme?"<p>

"I d-don't know..."

"Because English is stupid. Which is why I'm going to teach you Latin instead!"

Monty looked up at the man in uncertainty. Wasn't he supposed to be keeping up on a regular school curriculum of sorts? They two were sitting at a desk floating in the middle of the dreamscape. The change of scenery was interesting to say the least. It looked almost like they were floating over a large body of water. When ever one of them moved, the water underneath them shifted in the same spot. But that was not the confusing part. It was impossible to tell what the sky above them was. Could it he a reflection of the water? Was it also that same water? Was anything there? It was unlike anything the boy had ever seen before.

But he thought that he liked it, the change from constantly being in the Mystery Shack was nice. And according to the man, this was barely a glimpse of what the mindscape had to offer. But he chose scenery that was not distracting because he was going over a few lessons he would give him so he would be ready for school once things went back to normal. If they went back to normal. Needless to say, this wasn't exactly the normal sort of stuff he learned in school.

"I'm not very normal." Bill added, clearly reading the boy's thoughts.

"Y-you can read m-minds?" The boy nervously stuttered, thinking back to lying about trusting the demon.

"Yes." He smiled, enjoying his discomfort at the fact. "But out of common courtesy I tend to leave people's thoughts well enough alone."

Monty's fear gave away to curiosity. He knew that the demon was not to be trusted, yet the little boy could not help but wonder more about the strange man. What was it like being a demon? Did he have any family of sorts? Was he always a demon?

"What else can you do?" The youngest Pines asked.

Bill felt a spark of triumph at how eager and ambitious the boy was. Learning more would make things even easier for him. If he continued to be interested, it would be all the more easier to lure him in to doing other things as well.

"Well, being a dream-demon entitles me to lots of things. Full reigns over the mind, a slightly endearing woman who constantly finds a way to hide from me, and a bunch of other boring adult stuff you wouldn't be interested in." The demon listed. "But there are quite a few this that I can't do. I think it would be easiest if you asked what I could do instead."

Monty thought for a moment, then suggested;

"Can you turn invisible?"

"You bet!" Bill replied, flickering invisible before turning opaque once more.

"I know you can float already... Can you hypnotize people?"

"Yup. All it takes are a few words!"

"What about x-ray vision?"

The demon's eyes flashed green for a moment. Then he shook his head in disgust.

"Ugh, skeletons." He mumbled.

Mabel's son paused once more, this time for dramatic effect. Giving the demon an unsettling smile that could rival his own, the boy announced in a dramatic voice;

"Can you raise the dead?"

Bill did not say anything right away as he dwelled on the question. He wasn't quite sure about that one. Sure he had "accidentally" created zombies before, but he never had a reason to try raising anyone from the dead. What would happen if he tried? Would he have some sort of upper force lecture him for disturbing balance?

"Probably, I've just never bothered to." He finally shrugged.

"What's it like being a demon?"

Why was it the simplest questions had the most difficult answers to explain? After a moment's thought, the demon responded;

"Well it's definitely not like being a human."

"How do you know so much?"

"Because I can."

"Don't you ever forget anything?"

"Well, I can never remember the difference between lying to people and bluntly stating the truth..." Bill mused. "Is there even a difference?

"A huge one." Mabel's son said.

"All humans wind up dead in the end, so I suppose it doesn't matter." He waved off.

The little boy frowned slightly at this.

"Are you immort- ima- immot- unable to die?"

"Immortal?"

"Yea, that. Are you?"

"It's complicated and involved long boring descriptive words. It would be a waste of time to explain it when I could be doing something more interesting like- Hey look! A doorway leading to ancient human times!"

Before the boy could ask what he meant by this, the familiar yet sickening feeling of vanishing somewhere washed over the boy. When he opened his eyes again, they were standing on a crowded street. People were everywhere, all going about their daily lives, not even noticing the two who had just appeared. There were a few sitting in the shade, under stands, selling their wares. Others drove cattle down the street, to wherever their destination was. A woman or two dressed in odd clothing could be seen carrying what must have been water in a vase or pot, balanced on their heads. Then, looking down at his own clothes, Monty shrieked;

"I look like an old time-y looser!"

The man could not help but chuckle at this.

"Yes, but it also means you blend in with ancient Rome."

"This is a glorified bed-sheet!" He whined.

"Does it make it any better that I'm wearing a chiton as well?" The blond sighed.

Glancing at the man's exposed shoulders and chest, he could not help but say;

"You're a lot more of a stick figure than I expected."

"I am not a stick-figure!" The lanky man shot back, attempting to hide his blush. He just couldn't put on any weight. That's all it was!

"What are we doing in..."

"Rome." He answered for the boy.

"Thanks. So what are we doing here?"

"The Romans used to speak Latin." He explained.

"Used to?"

"No one actually uses Latin anymore, it's a dead language."

"Like Pig-Latin?"

"That's not a reall language."

"Sye ti si!" The boy said.

"On ti tno." He firmly said back in the pretend language. "You're learning real Latin. It's much more useful."

What use was a language was completely dead? Sure if a few people still spoke it, the language could be like a secret between them, but he didn't know anyone who did. What was he supposed to do with the knowledge otherwise? Really, he should have just been learning the basic principles of English that he would be missing once school resumed once more.

"Are you sure this will help me?" Monty wondered. "Where can I use it?"

"Latin is helpful." The demon firmly insisted. "Your mother knows it, and she used it to summon me. All of my deals are written down in Latin. It's an old and powerful language with a great number of stories behind it."

"How can it be powerful?"

"There are many different ways it could be considered powerful. But for your sake, let's just go with the example of me. I know Latin, I use it frequently. Do you not think that I'm a fairly dangerous being who you wouldn't cross?"

Hearing the slightly threatening undertone in his voice, the boy could not help but shudder and recall his lie. The demon thought that he had his trust, he had lied about thinking he could ever be relied upon. And it was clear to Mabel's son that Bill was not the type of demon who enjoyed being lied to. But what would be safer? So come clean?Or not say anything at all?

"You're not someone I would try to cross." The boy stated.

"Good choice. Anyways! Latin, you're learning how to speak it!"

Bill now lead the boy down the street. The road was not paved, rather it was flat, beaten-down and dusty earth. The buildings were nothing like he had ever seen before. Some impressive, some lacking. Many of them were made of stone. A few of them had elaborate carvings in them, while others did not. One building in particular was very impressive. It was a large temple, giant pillars holding up the roof. Here the demon stopped, and went up the steps of the building.

It was blissfully cooler in the shade, compared to the sweltering heat. There was a large statue and an altar at the back of the temple, depicting the image of some sort of god. The demon could not help but smile as he recognized the large homage.

"Mars, the Roman god of war. Nice guy, really enjoyed mass destruction."

"Ok?"

Not really paying attention to the boy's confusion at his slightly skewed history lesson, the man started to wander around the temple again. There should have been someone literate around, maybe a small class of the more well-off students learning here. Education was not something everyone received, so it would make sense to find a small class wandering around here somewhere. Finally, a man who was staring at the ceiling as he wandered around appeared, obviously deep in thought.

Bill grinned. He indicated for Monty to be quiet, and then snuck behind him. Once they both vanished behind a pilliar, there was a rather large crashing sound, followed by a short exclamation of pain. The demon returned, holding what appeared to be a brain.

"You stole his brains?!"

"No!" He laughed. "I'm not allowed to teach you how to rob graves according to your mom. This is just a look-alike of it so I can go through his memories and figure out how to teach you."

"So you know how to teach me how to rob graves, but you can't do the same with Latin?"

"No. I'm only good at mass-destruction and causing trouble."

"You're pretty much Soos in a demon's clothing then." Mabel's son pointed out.

"Incorrect, I never apologize for my mass destruction. It's not like anyone is after me anyways."

"There he is!"

"Get him!"

"Stop that time anomally!"

Hearing those irritatingly familiar voices, Bill slowly turned around to face the Time Anomaly Enforcement Squadron or whatever it was they were called. He could never be bothered remembering their names. The demon just knew that they were always chasing after him thanks to his usual infractions of time.

The names of the two members standing there slipped his mind at the moment, but the demon wanted to laugh as he recognized Blendin' Blandin'. It seemed the awkward, sweaty man was finally off of probation. The men dressed in grey had finally caught up to him. Usually it took a few months or so for them to actually catch up considering they had no way in to the dreamscape. Really their determination to stop him was adorable at best.

"Well, it looks like you've caught us." Bill sighed. "Me, the same dream-demon who has been eluding you for an indefinite amount of time over several planes of existence. The same dream-demon who could enter your minds in the blink of an eye and rewire your thoughts so you'd think you were squirrels. But still, I must give up as the situation is completely hopeless. No way around it."

Then, proving how hopeless the situation really was, the whole street erupted in to pandemonium. Somehow a rather large and fierce-looking bull was released from it's holding pen at the butcher's. Now free, it began to charge down the street, threatening to gore anyone who came remotely near it. Stalls were overturned, people screamed, and any animals that were passively being transported to market panicked as the scene went on. Running, galloping, or flying off. There were attempts to round up the animals, thievery instantly broke out as people left things abandoned, and the demon somehow vanished in to the crowd with Monty in tow.

Holding on to the boy's shoulder in an iron grip, the blond took twists and turns through the havoc, weaving his way through the mass of people. The protests of the Time Police telling them to stop could just barely be heard above thescreams of the entire street. But he did not stop, even as the voices came closer.

Common sense told him it was best not to vanish from the street or float above it all. People's attention would be caught that way, and he was already in a sticky situation as it was. But the common sense did not extend to their clothing. His suit returned back to it's rightful place, sans his hat. He already stood out as it was. Monty's shorts and t-shirt twisted back to normal as well. Luckily no one noticed their odd dress, they were too busy with their own problems.

"Stop running so slowly!" Bill said.

"Stop running so fast!" Monty huffed as the stitch in his side grew worse. "Why are we running? Can't you just stop them?"

"Not with you here. You're traumatized enough as it is."

"What does traumatized mean?" He wheezed

"Less talking more running!"

The boy tried to keep up, but it was growing more and moredifficult as the pain in his side grew, and it became all the more harder to breathe. It was already hard enough to walk in stride with the man, but running away was a whole different level of difficultly. Realizing that he was slowing down still, the demon said without any remorse;

"Your uncle was just as slow as you."

Hearing this practically made him see red. He was nothing like his Uncle Dipper! He was his own person no matter what anyone ever said! No matter what Gideon said to him! He wasn't his uncle and never would be! His mother always went on about how great her other half was, how much she cared about him, so why had they never even met? What was the man trying to hide? And how come Gideon thought that he could ever remotely be like him? It was all his fault that he had to live through all of his name-calling and pain, and he hated him for it.

But even as the little boy felt this wave of venomous dislike wash over him, fatigue was still present. His little burst of speed was replaced with an even slower pace. A spell of dizziness washed over Monty, causing him to not see the pot hole in the road. He would have jumped over it otherwise, but he was too tired to see it coming and tripped. But, the blond caught him before he could fall. Still running, the demon picked the boy up in his arms, all in one motion. He was hindered for a moment but was able to resume once more.

Slowly the masses of people thinned out, and the angered cries of the pursuers could be heard more clearly. Before either one knew what was happening the came to the end of a boulevard and were suddenly tumbling over one and other down a rather steep hill in to a pasture where sheep where grazing. Monty was the first to recover from the fall, and realized that he was sprawled across the man's abdomen. But he was too tired to move at all. It felt like his arms and legs were filled with cement. The same applied to Bill, who was only now realizing how dog-tired he was, a sensation he had not felt in a while.

The two of them lay there, breathing heavily. The demon stared up at the sky, while Monty had a lovely view of the grass. The bleating of sheep could be heard in the distance, but the Time Anomaly Enforcement Squadron was nowhere to be found. One of the more curious sheep wandered away from the fold, curiously sniffing the two of them. It began to lick Bill's hair at an odd angle. He half-heartedly tried to shoo it away with a glare, but there was not much else he could do. Eventually it got bored of this and left them alone.

"Can you get off of me now?" He finally managed to ask.

"Sure." The boy replied, getting up and then laying down next to him.

They were quiet again until Monty said;

"You're covered in green!"

Bill looked down at himself, surprised to realize only now that he was covered head-to-toe in grass stains.

"Painful." He muttered to himself.

"Why?"

"Grass is hard to get out of the colour yellow."

"Who were those guys?"

"Losers. The problem with time-travel is that I'm not supposed to be doing it, but I still do anyways."

"They haven't caught you before? Aren't you worried about getting in trouble?"

"Trouble is my middle name."

"Ugh, my middle name is _Dipper. _" He muttered with disdain.

"You really don't like your uncle do you?"

"Everyone says I'm like him. I'm not! I'm just Montgomery Pines!" The dirty-blond insisted, waving his arms at the sky.

The demon blew out a long breath as he felt a disgustingly familiar sensation set in his stomach. Quite frankly he was surprised that he was even feeling guilt. Why should he? So he had pushed to boy by mentioning his uncle! Who cared if there was clearly a hatred of the man building underneath the surface, probably caused by the pain he indirectly inflicted through the twisted eyes of Gideon. He needed to get away from the Time Anomaly Enforcement Squadron without making too big on an impression on the era, or landing worse off by revealing that he was a demon. And he had. That was all that was important. Their- no, his! It was just his safety and his own alone that mattered!

"If it makes you feel any better, I get what you mean."

Surprised, the boy looked over at the blond.

"How?"

"Has anyone ever compared you to a corn chip before?" Bill grinned.

Monty had to fight back a laugh at this. He sort of did look like a corn chip while not human.

"People really say that?"

"Yup. Corn chip, pythagora's theorem, rejected Tetris block, isosceles monster, boy-band wanna' be. I've been compaired to a few things."

"Mom compared you to Gideon."

"Wouldn't surprise me." He waved off, trying to steer the subject away from Mabel. "I think we'll skip the Latin lesson today."

"I don't think I can even stand!"

"Neither can I. My legs feel like your mom's fruit cake without the fruit and sparkles." He replied, accidentally brining up Mabel again. "Does she still attempt to make it every now and then?"

"Yuck! She still does."

"Now that was a Christmas holiday to remember!" The demon said more to himself than to the boy.

"Why? What happened?"

"I woke up and was red, green, and white instead of yellow. And then there was the time she trapped me in a human-sized present box after I put a snowball down her sweater. All of the coffee in the house was replaced with egg nog, at one point. And I kept tripping over the tinsel she left on the floor."

"What were you doing at her house for Christmas?"

"I got snowed in with her after she upset the spirit of holiday decorating." He blamed, even though it might have possibly been all his fault.

"That's a real thing?"

He shivered at the memory of the talking snowman. The one he lost his hat it fell in to the hands of Mabel, and the she put it on top of her snowman, which brought it to life! It was the logic of Gravity Falls' at it's finest really. After he demanded his hat back, it created a giant blizzard which resulted in two meters of snow.

"Oh it's real alright. Corn cob pipe, button nose, and those horrible, horrible eyes made out of coal!"

"Were you scared of it?"

"What?! Of course not!"

There was nothing scary about that demonic snow man. Not the way it danced around, or constantly stated that today was it's birthday. It was just a snowman after all! There was nothing to be afraid of! Even if it was Mabel who melted it in the end with her hair dryer, thus ending the eternal winter plaguing Gravity Falls.

Not really believing, he questioned;

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I- Hey look at what I can do to those sheep over there!"

Bill jumped to his feet and started turning their wool multiple colours. Then, plucking his fingers in the air with rather sharp and jointed movements, he made a few of them march around in a little procession. Monty, feeling a second wind return mimicked him and suggested for him to do a few things with the sheep, including a few gymnastic moves and forming a pyramid. Delighted with how much the dirty-blond enjoyed tormenting the poor animals, the demon did not even notice as the sheep continued to change colours on their own accord, or how he was no longer in control of the actions of the sheep.

The demon was not ashamed to admit that Monty had a much longer attention span than him. This resulted in the man sitting under the shade of a tree, burning little patterns in to the grass all while keeping an eye on the boy. He planned out how he was going to teach the boy Latin. Naturally, having no real teaching skills what so ever, he stole a bit of information from a master of the language.

He would start off with the basics, and common phrases used. Linking words, a few fundamentals. Plus an explanation on how many of the words had three or more meanings in English would be crucial as well. Translation between the two could be such a pain at times. Why Latin was dead was beyond the demon. It always had a shorter way to say absolutely everything! But then again, he wasn't o e of the humans who over time, gave up on the language.

Eventually, the sun began to sink on the horizon, dimming the once vibrant blue to a more muted pink and orange. Now the sheep faded back to their original creamy white wool, and went about grazing as if nothing had ever happened to them. Monty walked over to the man, who curiously looked up at him.

The boy did not say anything, he was exhausted. Instead, he collapsed back on the ground next to the demon, resting his head on his arms. Drained from the day's hijinks, he quickly drifted off. Unbothered by this, the demon resumed drawing blackened little runes in to the once vivid grass. That was, Bill remained unbothered until he gave a yawn of his own.

Another sign of what he thought had left him. Fatigue, guilt, tolerance... All things he had not felt for at least seven or eight years now... That was slightly concerning... Could it be Mabel? Maybe. But there was also the explanation of Monty having that effect on him again. It was just a reflex that would iron itself out again. It had no replace in his dead heart. But the problem was, he could now feel the slightly irregular beating to the left of his chest. When did that start up again?

As much as he would have liked to dwell on it a while longer, the demon knew that he couldn't remained exposed like this outside of the dreamscape, let alone in the past for too long. He didn't feel alert as he usually was, and it might be a little more difficult than usual to remain so at this rate. Another chase away from the Time Police was not something he felt up to

Getting to his feet, Bill stretched. He winced, feeling the stiff exhaustion in his bones. Score five for human sensations returning to his human body. Mabel's son was still sleeping, and it seemed a little unnecessary to wake him up. So scooping up the boy in his arms, the returned to the Mystery Shack.

Carrying him up the stairs to the attic, he carefully placed the boy in his bed. He pulled off the boy's sneakers, but decided that he could just fall asleep in his clothes. He quickly tucked him in bed and switched off the lights, making sure to shut the door behind him.


	7. Dipper

**Now we have some mlre delving in to our backstory and a few mlre questions are risen as Bill speculates on who Monty's father is, and you the reader wonder what happened between Dipper and Mabel. Not that either of those questions would be answered bluntly of course, but you know how I like to roll. But without farther ado, enter the characters!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p>He appeared in the attic bedroom once more, where Mabel sat on her own the man there she gave him what could have been considered a warm greeting, even smiling slightly. The brunette found his expression slightly odd, but there was hardly anything normal about the demon anyways.<p>

"I thought you'd be interested to hear about your own end of the deal." He explained.

Mabel's smile wavered at the mention. But she quickly told herself that it was bound to happen anyways. Besides, anything he threw at her. His worst could never compare to that of Gideon's. How wrong she was in her assumptions as he explained to her in so many words what her side of the deal entailed to him.

Shocked and dismayed beyond all belief, the only thing that she could do was take a few steps away from the man and quietly stutter;

"N-no."

"Yes." Bill contradicted, closing the gaps between them and holding her against the wall.

"P-please!" She tried to beg, struggling away from him.

"What's wrong?" He asked, feigning hurt. "Maybe I should have clarified something to you Mabel Pines; I'm not over you, I never was and never will be. And considering that, you should consider yourself lucky I didn't make it otherwise."

"Not my son though! Please!" She sobbed. "Anything else!"

"I don't think so." He replied with a grim smile.

"Please! If you really aren't over me then I'll let you do whatever you want to me!" The brunette offered in desperation.

"Interesting proposition..." Bill mused before fixing her with a dark glare. "But why do that when I could take what I want from you by force?"

Mabel's eyes widened in horror at the meaning of his words.

"Because I a-always find a way to escape. I w-wouldn't this time, I p-promise!"

This time she was not met with his words, but his lips. She could practically feel the absolute longing in his actions, even a mixture of sadness as if he had missed being able to hold her there. He did not try to force her to do anything, or hold her there for very long though. It was only a quick brush that silenced her.

"I wish you were as loyal to me as you were to you son." He said in reply. "You'll always run from me, no matter what."

"I w-wouldn't run." She sniffled, raising a hand to cup his face in an achingly familiar gesture. She was desperate to pursaude him otherwise, she would do anything to keep her son safe and away from him.

"I'd stay by your side if you just wouldn't go through with this. Y-you'd have my word."

For a flickering moment, he wanted to let her go free with no strings attached. But he knew it was only her hand gently caressing his cheek that was making him think so. Grabbing her hand, the blond questioned;

Why should I have your word when I could have an heir to all of my destruction and planning against your family? You're an escape artist, I know that you'd find a way for the both of you to run from me no matter the costs."

"Because I could give you another child!"

The blond stopped speaking again, as he pretended to let her words sink in with him. He already had the first time she had offered herself in return, and it was truly a tempting offer. Finally a chance to stop her from always running from him. He certainly liked the idea. And she had even left him with a single loop hole to exploit. If she were to bend to his every whim, he could force her to not protest over the plans he had for her son. Silly little Shooting Star...

"Well, since you're so persistent about it-"

* * *

><p>Startled, Bill woke up. Realizing that it had all been nothing more than a very realistic and enjoyable dream, he sighed in frustration. Some day soon it might come true, but not today. Why was it that dreams always ended at the best part? As he woke up a little more the demon began to realize how unrealistic the whole fantasy was.<p>

Mabel would never act like that, so desperate as to sell herself to him. The woman had much more pride than that, and quite a few bargaining chips before she would even consider doing so. More likely she would be defiant to the end, calling him a monster, no better than Gideon. But it had all felt so real. It was like he could smell her hair, practically taste her lips, feel her in his arms! Enjoyable yes. Realistic, no. Besides, there were more important things to muse over at the time.

Like how and why he had fallen asleep on the couch in Soos' old break room. And what the feeling of disgust was doing there as the events of his dream replayed over and over in his mind. Imaging Mabel like that, taking advantage of her in that state... Each time she offered herself as a bargaining chip like that and him accepting the deal... It made him practically nauseous!

_"I could give you another child!"_

Another...

He felt his blood freeze at the very idea, the insinuations behind the conception of Mabel's son.

Another...

"It was just a dream." He reminded himself. "And you know that's not possible."

But why had it phrased it in that way? Monty was nothing like him. He swung back been being serious and immature, had a darker side, didn't like Dipper, could manipulate if necessary... Not in the slightest! They were nothing alike and that. Was. Final. After all, it was probably those stupid human paternal instincts. Those were a thing weren't they?

For the first time in a long time his human side was fighting back, and it did not seem to be planning on giving up any time soon.

* * *

><p>Dipper scratched his mosquito bites, wishing that he was not out of aloe vera gel. But he had used most of it for his fly bites and sunburn. But he would be back home in Gravity Falls soon, and the town always made a bundle off of anti-black fly and mosquito items, along with remedies for the bites. Some of the worked, some of them didn't.<p>

But he had learned the hard way that coffee, hot peppers, and onions (Courtesy of Lazy Susan) did not work in the slightest to sooth the itching. And neither did itching powder. But how was he supposed to know that itching powder made you itchy instead of stopping it?!

He had arrived at the airport in Oregon hours ago, returning from a disclosed location in South America. The journals were safe, finally. At least the first volume formerly belonging to Stan and his own copy were. Now all that was needed was Gideon's, and the trio of books would vanish forever. Too risky to keep, and too risky to destroy. The next best option?

Hiding them far and wide, where no one would ever look, where no one could ever reach. Forty days, sweltering in the Amazon on his own. Finding the last safe place, constructing the security measures that would forevermore keep anyone from coming close.

But it was not a coincidence that he had waited until the last day of summer, Labour Day, before returning home. Mabel Pines and her demon-spawn would be back home by then, no doubt readying her precious son for the first day back at school. He had managed to avoid the two of them yet again. Dipper was glad that she wasn't so much the type to appear unexpectedly anymore. She always gave him an invitation, and he always got it and left before she could ever show her traitorous face again.

One could only imagine Dipper's surprise as he nearly drove over the road, falling in to the river the passing falls now flowed across. Squealing to a halt, he reversed and got out of the car. How had he missed something so crucial?! He could have...

The man walked over to the edge of where the road once was. If you were driving along the bend, you would not see that the entire bridge crossing the river where the famous waterfalls of the approaching town had been completely demolished. The swirling dangerous currents underneath had swept away most of the evidence, but the bridge had clearly been blasted away on purpose. What was going on?

An ever-deepening feeling of horror sunk in to the former Mystery Twin's stomach as he looked at the ominous stretch of unreachable road, where the greeting sign of Gravity Falls was. Rather, formerly was. In it's place was one of Gravity Falls' favourite former child-star and... His sister. Advertizing the new Gideon Land.

Mabel... She looked awful wearing what could only be considered the female version of Gideon's power-blue suit. The large picture was poor quality at best. But it must have ben a recent one considering her condition, not just a terribly edited one of Gideon holding a cardboard cut out of her.

The dark circles under Mabel's eyes were haphazardly smudged away with someone who had no concept on how to use a photo editor. Her smile was the fakest one he had ever seen her wear. It could not even compare to all the times she had-

Dipper squashed the feelings of sympathy he was starting to feel for the traitor. The only person who had landed Mabel in that position was herself. If she had never insisted on finally seeing him after all these years and introducing her little devil-spawn, it would have never happened to her. But that didn't mean he wished Gideon upon her! The kid maybe, but not his sister.

Mabel was stubborn. If she had actually shown up in Gravity Falls while he was away, she would have waited for him to come back. And Gideon had taken over the town in the short time he was away. Likely getting Mabel as well. But how was that even possible? The last time he checked, Gideon was in jail for another twenty years after breaking parole or something along those lines. He didn't know all of the fine print details as it was around the same time Stan had passed away. Courtesy of Bill, and indirectly Mabel for daring to trust him.

His fists tightly curled at the very mention. He would _never, ever _even _entertain _the very _thought _ of forgiving her for trusting him. He had warned her so many times, yet she still insisted that for just once, a little faith could be put in the demon. But the one time he did and the demon proved how trusted he really could be. Dipper had tried to forgive his sister at first, did his best not to say "I told you so."

But it did not last for long. Because then came the straw that broke the camel's back as four months later, Mabel discovered that she was carrying that little parasite inside of her. She refused to give it up though, stating it deserved a chance at life. Not in his eyes it didn't. But at this point he was just too fed up to argue anymore. Her revelation and the conversation that followed was a grand total of five sentences on his part, and Dipper could care less.

_"I'm pregnant."_

_Dipper looked up at his sister in surprise. No... That could not be possible. Mabel had always insisted that she had never done anything with the man, promised to remain clean until she was married. Well her promise that Bill could be trusted turned out to be fake, so why not this?_

_"You're getting rid of it right?"_

_Mabel stared at her brother through the tears threatening to spill in shock._

_"It?! Dipper, it's a baby!"_

_"I don't want anything to do with that demon-spawn in you. Get rid of it, or leave Gravity Falls."_

_"B-but-"_

_"But nothing!" He snapped. "You promised that you weren't doing anything like that with him. I guess that just proves how much I can really trust you. The journals were right all along. In Gravity Falls, there really is no one you can trust."_

_"I didn't break it Dipper! He never-"_

_"I don't want to hear it."_

_"Dipper, just let me explain!" She sobbed. "I never got the chance to tell you that-"_

_"Get. Out. And don't even think about coming back to Gravity Falls."_

Dipper shook his head, trying not to dwell on the bitter memories of seven going on eight years past. There was nothing else to go over. They were the past, and that was that.

* * *

><p>Monty was having flash backs turned nightmares of his own as he lay curled up in bed. Whimpering and twitching slightly as he attempted to escape from his drams. Just as the boy was certain he could take the pain no longer he sat bolt right up in bed, squeaking to no one;<p>

"I'll be a good boy Daddy!"

Slowly, taking a few deep breaths, he managed to calm down and let the fact that it was only a dream sink in. Only, it wasn't just a dream. All the bad things that had happened to him in his night-terrors were real. They were possible. They were nothing like other fears he dreamt about so log ago. When he woke up in the mornings they had always seemed silly, he and his mom joked about how impossible they were. But these ones were possible, and they had happened, and they would happen again unless he was a good boy and took everything that was thrown at him.

Gideon hated it when he tried to fight back or sass him, but there was always that undefeated part in him who would. Bill would let him speak his mind, but that was only because the demon had the last word every single time. He was powerless against the both of them. The demon was just another danger laying in wait to hurt him. As soon as the man found a reason to cause him pain he would do it. Monty was certain, it had to be! Deal or not there would be some way he would do so.

There had to be some sort of way out of this! He didn't want to be locked away again! He didn't want to be hurt any more! The boy knew that he didn't deserve this, that they were both very bad men. After all, the one person he would never trust would be the person who told him that they could be trusted. Why would they even want to gain his trust for any reason other than to manipulate him?

He was trapped in here, the boy didn't want to be contained in the tight spaces he wanted to be free and away from it. Being so close reminded him of being locked for days in that closet and he was never going back there! Never ever never ever ever never! The suffocating feeling returned, but it was not because he had been transported from one place to another.

Monty felt like the walls of the room were pressing down on him, that the sheets in his bed were slowly trying to tangle themselves around him and never let him leave, that the pitch black dark wanted to slowly fill his lungs with poison on make him choke and die. It was like being trapped in that horrible closet all over again!

He stumbled to his feet, trying to shake the blankets that had twisted around his feet. Quietly whimpering he scrambled out of the room and shut the door behind him. Mabel's son did not know where to go from her, but in the blink of an eye, the dirty-blond found himself sitting on the roof of the Mystery Shack.

It was nighttime outside, and conveyed a spectacular view of the night sky that seemed more real than real life. A large full moon beamed down in the darkness, no clouds there to cut through it. But there was something off about the night, it must have been the knowledge that it was not truly real, only a part of the dreamscape.

Sitting down, he curled his knees to his chin and rested there, trying to take deep breaths and let the open space around him register. The little boy was able to calm down slightly by taking a few longer breaths, but he still felt like screaming at the top of his lungs as he tried to contain everything that he was feeling. Memories kept coming back, he couldn't push them away like he had earlier. Every time he did they just became worse.

Right after Gideon said he knew where his mother went to he was roughly grabbed by the shoulder and dragged through his house. Any hope of the albino taking him to see her faded as he was pulled in to a spare bedroom and pushed in to a closet. From there the door had locked behind him. Monty tried opening the door, but could not get the knob to twist. His first demands to be let out were met with Gideon to pipe down and shut his bratty mouth. He had refused to do so until this throat felt dry and shredded from screaming for help. No one ever came to his rescue in the following hours.

It was dark in the closet and it smelled funny. He hated the sickeningly sweet yet antiseptic scent that permeated the air. It was the same odour that lingered around his former tormentor. There was not much room in there either, it was more of a linen closet than a real one. He was forced to stand there in the darkness which his eyes never seemed to adjust to.

His arms and legs always got stiff from holding the same position. He was left cramped and strained as he stood there, the little boy could barely take it. To add insult to injury, he had to keep his legs crossed the entire time so he would not soil himself. But, ashamed as he was to admit it, there were occasions where he simply could not do anything but.

The dirty-blond then had to remain standing there until he was let out so he could be washed or relive himself. That was the only way he could really measure the time spent in that suffocating, small, space. The only other times he was let out were for much more unpleasant reasons. But as soon as the door was unlocked, he quickly learned what and what not to do.

He usually stumbled the first few steps, but he discovered that lingering was not a good idea. If he took too long to walk to the washroom, he would be shoved forwards. If he went too quickly, he would be hauled back by the collar of his shirt. Every little mistake was considered fair game for punishment in the albino's near colourless eyes.

The little boy knew not to waste his time and quickly did everything he had to, and made sure to take a drink of water from the sink. If he had not done otherwise he would have died of thirst. The dirty-blond made sure to make every breath of fresh air count. It was near impossible to breath in the heavy scents of the closet enveloping him, mixed with the embarrassing ones of urine. And he was not going back to that! Not now or ever! He would run away if he had to and keep running if he was chased after.

" 'S the matter kiddo?" Bill asked from behind the little boy.

Mabel's son jumped in surprise, nearly slipping off of the roof. But he caught himself before the fall could really start. Still, the dirty-blond tried to distance himself from the man.

"N-nothing! Go away!"

Sitting down next to the boy and swinging his legs over the ledge, the blond replied;

"I'm pretty sure whatever's eating ya' is _not _nothing."

"Go away." Monty repeated, distancing himself again.

"Go away isn't a part of my rather extensive vocabulary." He grinned.

Monty did not return the smile. There was no room to move any farther without falling so he go to his feet.

"I don't know what that means, but go away."

Monty was suddenly striken down by his memories of being locked in the tight space. They flashed by his vision a moment before things cleared. Now the demon looked much more grave, and even a touch angry as he started down at him.

"You're still having nightmares about this kiddo?"

Had Bill just read his thoughts? Monty glared at the demon, seething at the idea.

"I'm not a _kiddo_! And that's none of your business!" He snapped.

Bill was surprised, but not unfazed by the boy snapping at him.

"Ma- Sh- Your mom made a deal with me, and that means I care about your well-being."

"A likely story." Monty scoffed. "You had no problem with killing me earlier! You could break your deal and do it now if you wanted to!"

"Don't you trust me?" The demon strategically asked.

The ploy did not work.

"I don't know what freakish plans you have that involve my trust, but I'm not giving in to them!"

So he knew that he was planning something. Anyone could assume that, but the boy would be more on his guard then.

"So you lied to me then." He pointed out.

"I saw you cross your fingers, so you're not any better!" The little boy spat, tears welling in his eyes.

"I'm no saint." The blond agreed with a shrug. "But what did you expect?"

"Someone who was at least better than Gideon!"

That hurt. It hit closer home than the boy could ever imagine. Being compared to Gideon Gleeful was a soft spot to say the least. He liked to think that he and the cream puff were two separate persons with very different limits. There were some lows he would not stoop to. At a time he had not been all that bad. At a time he had given up something important to him even as it fought to stay with him. But in the end it didn't last. His will faded, and her son repeated the same words that she had screamed to him seven years ago.


	8. Meeting

**More drama! And a little fluff! And then some more drama following the fluff!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

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><p><em>"And you promised me! You said you would Bill! You promised me that you would give up your powers for me, that you wouldn't let the demon inside win! You said that you would never hurt Monty! You promised me so many things and you never held one of them Bill! At least Gideon keeps his word!"<em>

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><p>Eyes snapping open once more, the demon sighed. Falling asleep was not going to work. Especially if his dreams always consisted of how much she hated him, compared him to the lowest of the low. And now he had an upset kid on his hands.<p>

In the short time he had reflected on what they boy said, he had run off. Bill knew that he should have been more concerned for Monty's safety, but the man had child-proofed the section of the dreamscape they were currently residing in. He could sense his presence not too far off, perhaps holed up in the attic or the washroom as he attempted to block him out. Poor kid was getting stir crazy with no way to vent any of his emotions properly. A few meltdowns were probably on the horizon. But what could he do for him? Bill didn't know, he wasn't a father...

"Not. Possible." The blond reassured himself.

He wasn't a father! And while he was starting to feel flickers of certain sensations return to him, along with a few drivelling instincts like his new-found paternal ones, he was unsure of how to give emotional support and comfort. Sure at one time he could, but that part of him did not seem to want to return to him.

"Imaginary Me!" He declared.

A younger and much healthier version of himself appeared in front of the demon. He remembered just on time that the cheerful blond always ran and jumped to hug him. The boy of eight or so did exactly that, tighly hugging the man. He stumbled back a few steps before managing to catch the both of them.

"What took you so long?" He smiled.

He let go of the man and stood on the ground once more. Bill rubbed his sore back for a moment, recovering from the flying tackle-hug his imagination used to give him.

"Yeah, about that..."He began, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"You were over thinking stuff like a complete Dipper Pines?"

"Well, that more or less sums it up. How did you-"

"I'm part of your imagination doofus!" The cheerful blond exclaimed, punching his shoulder.

He had to fight back a bittersweet smile as he rubbed his now sore arm. The man felt a small pang at this, and absent-mindedly listened as the innocent personification of himself that he could only imagine continued to chatter on about something or the other.

"-and that's how I found out if you mixed red nail polish with gasoline you would-"

"That's great." He cut in. "But I sort of reimagined you because I have a problem."

"What is it?" The boy wondered.

"Mabel's son and I sort of had this disagreement and he got mad at me and I don't know what to do."

"We have a son with Mabel?"

He bristled slightly at the word "we." The blond had completely forgotten that his imagination would not have any of his own current memories. He didn't know the full scope of the situation, and would react differently. How else was he supposed to remain so cheerful and innocent?

"No, she has a son. He's not mine."

The imaginary boy frowned slightly at this.

"You mean we broke up?"

"It's a long , complicated story with a lot of truths that have yet to come to light." The man hissed. "And we don't have time for small talk, I need you to get him to stop being so upset. I'm not good at emotional support."

The boy mock-saulted him.

"I'm on it!"

The little boy searched through the Shack, wondering where his new friend could have run off to. There were so many places to hide in the old building, it could take him hours to ever find him. Having scoured the downstairs, he now turned to the potentially dangerous staircase leading up. The steps were a bit steep, and the railing was splintering, but he still raced up them. Coming to a door, he pushed it open.

"Heeellooo! Is anybody in here?"

"No! No one's in here! Go away!" A tiny voice replied from somewhere in the room.

Now the small blond curiously stepped in to the room, looking around. There were two beds on either side of a triangular window, evidently one was being used by someone. The ceiling was high and slanted, he could see the rafters up above.

To one side of the room, piles, upon mountains of things were pushed to the side. A pinball machine, clocks, boxes of various parts, a few decaying taxedermied animals, empty bottles of glue, springs, a few rocks. The list went on, revealing all sorts of objects.

"Hiya' No One! Nice to meet you!" He chirped.

"My name is Monty!" The voice declared from somewhere between the boxes.

"Are you invisible? I wish I could do that!"

"Who are you anyways?" Monty suspiciously asked.

The blond shrugged.

"I don't have a name. I'm just a small part of Bill that he tends to ignore."

"Loud-mouthing? I'm pretty sure he doesn't ignore that."

"Nah, I'm just like his innocence and good intentions. That's why I'm so small."

"He actually has good intentions?"

"Of course he was good for a bit!" The little boy laughed. "Mabel never would have dated him otherwise!"

His new friend was silent for a moment. He wasn't really sure why he was though. Had Monty gone somewhere else and he couldn't see? This theory was proven wrong after the other boy quietly wondered;

"My mother dated _him_?"

"Yeah, they were going to get married too. Adults are weird though. And girls are yucky!"

"Agreed."

There was another paused between their banter.

"So what are you doing here?"

"Bill told me to."

"You listen to him? Is he trying to say he's sorry through you? Because it won't work!"

"Bill doesn't ever apologize. He just wants you to act more like a kid."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I'm a kid silly!"

"Oh."

"So where are you anyways?"

"Hidden." Monty stubbornly replied.

The blond, just as stubborn as him, cautiously began to venture through the piles of things, noting that there was a tiny path that had been cleared through it. Reaching the end of the path lead him to the wall. There, a larger space was cleared. The crawl space over top of the area closed it in and made it more secure without the encroaching claustrophobic sensation included.

Sitting on the floor was a boy about his age, although they both happened to be one the smaller side. He had hair that was clean, but the colouring in some places was a little mismatched and crazy. Brown in some parts, while near the top it was more blondish instead. He was holding a book in his hands, but was looking at him in interest.

"Found you!" He cheerfully declared.

"So what?"

"Well what do you want to do now?"

"Read." He simply lied, not mentioning the plans he had made for escape.

"But that's boring!" The blond huffed. "Let's make a bigger fort instead!"

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><p>Bill was a demon who often swam in denial, for quite a few things as well. But one thing he would always deny would be that he needed help. That being said, he did need help, quite a bit of it in fact. In blunt terms, he needed Mabel's help, but he refused to state that he needed her help. But then he had also shown up to get her help, and could not find a way to voice it to her. Which lead to his current predicament.<p>

The predicament in question being the same brunette who would be able to "assist" him by telling him what do to about Monty. It was no surprise that she was sleeping, but it was a surprise that she was crying in her sleep, occasionally asking for him to save her and make it stop.

_"She's having a nightmare about me." _He winced.

Would it be better just to leave her there and come back at a different time? Or should he find out what she was dreaming about and stop her nightmares for a little while? He was curious, but at the same time he didn't want to invade her privacy like that. He wanted to help her, but he also wanted to let her frightful dreams continue. waking her up seemed out of the question as well.

"P-please don't let h-him!"

Her desperate tone struck a chord with the blond, and he knew that he couldn't just leave her there crying. She was so helpless and small as the lay there, reminding him of a different time. When he helped make her nightmares go away. Carefully, he approached Mabel and crouched slightly to brush away a few stray curls of hair. Then, preparing himself for the worst, he entered her mind.

_She was walking alone on a dark street. Limping really, worse for wear as she tried to reach the Shack before Bill found her again..._

_"Time to wake up Mabel..."_

_She turned a corner, accidentally picking the wrong street. It was dark out, no one was out this late there were no lights in the alley, and she suddenly felt herself being grabbed from behind._

_"Hello my sweet."_

_Gideon._

_"It's time to wake up Mabel."_

_She tried to fight him, but he was too strong, much larger than her. He forced her against the wall, and stars erupted before her vision. Little tiny shooting stars..._

_"It's time to wake up Mabel."_

_She tried to scream for help. For someone, anyone, even Bill if he would make him go away. But the words stuck in her throat. She was helpless..._

_"MABEL, WAKE UP!_

Mabel awoke with a scream. She found herself staring in to a pair of blue-grey eyes and instinctively thought that he was Gideon at first. The brunette shivered and pushed him away. The man was caught off guard by this and stumbled back, landing rather ungainly on his backside. The woman shivered once more as she gained her bearings. She was so cold, and all of her felt like it was aching.

"Wow, some thanks." The man weakly joked.

"T-thank you." She gratefully stuttered. "You made him go away."

"I always kept your nightmares away before." He shrugged, getting to his feet.

Mabel yawned, and turned back on her side again, snuggling in to the covers as she tried to keep warm. The blond did not fail to notice the flush on her cheeks, or the slightly hazy look clouding over her eyes. He felt her forehead, only to find her burning up. Her fever symptoms held true.

"You're sick."

"I know." She sighed, sounding rather detached. "Can you keep me warm? Just until I get a little more sleep."

He blushed at the suggestion.

"Ummm, you know that means I'd be-"

"I don't care right now. You're not Gideon, and you keep the bad dreams away."

He felt his heart freeze as she said this. Yes, it was only because she was not feeling well, but hearing the real Mabel incoherently tell him that he was nothing like Gideon... It was wonderful, relieving. He took off his shoes, and lay down next to the brunette.

To his surprise she moved closer to him to the point where there was no space between them. He blushed at this, trying to place a little distance between them before he felt like never letting her go. As it turned out, he would have felt like this either way because she tugged his arm so it was now curled around her waist. The idea that she would ever let him near her after all he had done was astounding on it's own. Maybe she had finally been driven around the bend?

No, it was probably just how sick she really was. Actually, it was a bit concerning that Mabel would get ill enough to associate with him like this. When she started feeling better again, and let her thoughts become more coherent and she would be horrified. And hate him once more. Bill gave a sigh, knowing all too much how true it was.

Mabel soon fell back to sleep, proving just how exhausted the once energetic brunette was. Bill did not become any more relaxed though. He was too nervous to let himself be comfortable while he was cuddling her there. What if he didn't let go of her?

Why should he let go of her when she was so vulnerable in this state. No. He was never going to let go of her. Not after what happened last time. He had killed the man who got in the way of them once, and he would not hesitate in finishing the job by ending her brother as well! She was his, and he wasn't ever going to let her go again!

"Bill?" Mabel's raspy and tired voice interrupted.

"Mhm?"

"Too tight. Can't breath. You're hurting my bruises. Let go."

"No." He whispered in to her hair, nuzzling her neck.

"You're hurting me!" She gasped, becoming more alert.

_"Stop it! You're hurting me!"_

_"Oh! Shooting Star I'm sorry! I hurt you!"_

_"I-It's not ok!"_

_"I know it isn't. I'm supposed to keep you safe Mabel, I love you."_

_"I love you too..."_

Right away, the demon let go of her, trying to shake the memory out of his thoughts. But the hurt in Mabel's voice continued to haunt him. Having been squeezed awake, the woman sat up in bed. He followed suit, trying not to make too much eye contact.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"It's worth nothing to me and you know that." She sighed, rubbing her face. "But it's my fault for asking you to in the first place."

"You just wanted the nightmares gone." He excused, slightly uncomfortable.

"I was asking for it." She mumbled. "I shouldn't have hoped that you were over me. This headache is stopping me from thinking."

"What?" He tried to laugh off. "I have no idea what y-"

He was stopped in his tracks as Mabel suddenly cupped a hand around his face, and started to stroke his cheek.

"Stop it." The man stated.

This did nothing, and he only grew more uncomfortable as he was forced to stare in to her piercing eyes. Looking at them and realizing it had been so long since they held their innocence was not helping his case any.

"Stop it." He repeated.

The woman remained staring at him, unblinking. Only now, she inched closer to the demon.

"Stop it."

Before he could push her away, she slid on his lap, and he found himself even closer to her mesmerizing eyes. She knew full well that making eye contact could give him an opening in to her mind. From there, all sorts of horrible things could be done to her. While it was a temptation he would have taken at any other time, to any other person, he could not do so now. He never could anyways.

Now Mabel ran her fingers through his already messy hair, making it stick up even more. He tried to fight off the shivers of delight he was being caused, but he found himself practically purring his insistences for her to stop whatshe was doing.

"Stop it!" He hissed. "Stopitstopitstopitstopit!"

The tables suddenly turned on Mabel as he flipped the woman on to her back and forced her underneath him. Mabel gave a squeak of fear, she had never intended for things to go this far. And to her it looked like she would be forced in to going through with the pain once more. Why had she allowed herself to tempt fate and ignore the trauma just to prove a point?! A shudder of dread chorused through her as Bill leaned closer to her. Growling softly in his most dangerous tone, the demon intoned;

"Don't ever tempt me like that again."

To her shocked relief, he let go of her and once again placed distance between them. She had to fight back the urge to sob as she let it dawn on herself that he was not going to go through with it.

"You're not. And you never will be." She bluntly stated, disgust evident in her voice. "You might have if there was a clean break up in our relationship, and I didn't leave you trapped in a human body and have Dipper lock you up in the dreamscape. You were never one to shy away from dishing out revenge."

Staring at the brunette, he replied in all seriousness;

"I miss the happy, cheerful, innocent Mabel who would sweeten my coffee with Smile Dip because she used all the sugar for her latest mixture of edible glitter."

"What can I say?" She sighed, swiping at the tears forming in her eyes. "Being a glutton for punishment can take it's toll. I have a knack for attracting obsessive psychopaths."

Mabel laughed bitterly at her own joke, even though there was nothing funny about her disturbing truths. She had let go of the events of her past in Gravity Falls for seven going on eight long years. She had been happy again, she was able to return to her usual self once the reminders were gone. Mabel loved Monty, even if he did act different from all of her friends' children at times.

He was her little boy, and no matter what he got in to, she would always love him. It didn't matter that he looked more and more like his father as he seemed to grow right before her eyes! He was his own person, nothing like the monster! And she hoped that one day, she could finally show that to her brother and slowly mend the rift that had been formed over the years because of him.

It had taken her nearly a decade to work up the nerve and finally return to the small town, after all her attempts to reconcile with her brother had yet to work. If he wouldn't come to her, then she would have to visit him instead. Of course Dipper had long since left the Shack after he discovered that she was coming for a visit. The first few days in Gravity Falls were nice, and it was adorable to watch as her son went around, amazed to discover that all of her stories about Gravity Falls were true.

Of course it all had to go rotten from there. At first Mabel had been happy that even though she was staying in a place filled with so many hurtful memories, she hadn't let any feelings of the past control what she did. At least, that was until she and Monty ran in to none other than Gideon Gleeful, the same convict who should have been imprisoned in jail for the rest of his life after all he had done.

_"Why Mabel Pines, fancy seeing you here!" The albino grinned, completely looking over Monty._

_Mabel's grip on her son's hand tightened. As much as she wanted to panic, she knew that he could not do anything to them in broad daylight with spectators everywhere._

_"Actually, it's Hirsch." She coldly corrected._

_Gideon raised a near see-through eyebrow as he heard this._

_"Oh so you're married now?" He drawled, casting a hateful look at Monty. "And you have a son."_

_"I go by my mother's maiden name." The brunette hissed, pulling her son behind her. _

_"Really?" He grinned._

_Mabel could only nod in reply as she tried to keep away the unhappy memory. Dipper refused to let her use the last name Pines any more. Being the head of the family, he had no trouble in disowning her. He honestly and truly wanted nothing to do with Monty, and if it meant disowning his own sister, so be it._

_"So what are you doing out of your life sentence?"_

_"It's a long story." The man gave a suggestive wink. "But if you'd like, we could always go out to dinner and talk about it."_

_"We can't. Monty's bed time is in thirty minutes."_

_"Mom!" He protested in embarrassment._

_There was no reply to this. Instead, Mabel strode off in the other direction, hoping that the albino was not following her. And would remain as far away from them as possible._

"Was you dream real?" Bill asked, cutting in to her thoughts.

"Didn't I tell you that Gideon got what he wanted?" She snapped at him

"Yes, but you let me hold you there. Most people avoid physical contact after-"

"For a demon who's wanted to keep me as a toy all these years, you recally can be prude Bill. He raped me. He's gotten what he wanted before, and decided that he wasn't going to give me up any time soon."

The woman had to pause after this outburst, unable to force back her sobs any more. And it only made it worse as she hated herself for it. Letting the bad memories win, letting all the terrible, foul things she had endured through time make her crack. She felt so dirty and unclean, there were still times when she could feel what he had done to her. Hear all of his sickening words and commentary as she was forced to submit.

The pulsing feeling behind her forehead seemed to increase tenfold, and her shivers grew worse as well. She was cold, felt so cold. And confused, not knowing how to react before her savior and tormentor. He was the one who wanted to, tried to protect her, yet somehow he was the one who hurt her the most all the same. The man she loved, and the bane of her existence. Leaving her with no way to distinguish between the two.

"I'm sorry." The blond said.

"You're only sorry that you hoped I wouldn't run as fast as I could as soon as you let go of my arm." She spat.

"You're sick, you don't know what you're saying." He coldly replied, getting out of bed and slipping on his shoes.

"I may be sick, and not fully aware of what I've been telling you, but I meant it when I said you weren't Gideon. You're worse!"

"Oh really?" He challenged.

"At least Gideon has a decent excuse for doing everything he has to me! He never gave his word that he would repress any dangerous instincts to prove to my family that we could be together! He never told me that he would never try to hurt me, and would protect me with his life-force! And he never promised that no matter what, he would never, _ever _force me in to doing something I felt I wasn't ready for yet!"

After strainging herself with such a rant, Mabel was overcome with a fit of painful, hacking coughs. Every time she coughed, it looked like her ribs were going to come loose, but the man still held very firm in his rising anger. What little sympathy he had felt vanished.

"You know what?! Fine!" He snarled at Mabel. "Doing all those things only made me worse anyways!"

"Fine then!" She huffed in between coughs.

"FINE!"

"What's fine?" A curious voice asked from behind Bill.

Surprised, the demon realized that in his anger he had not even register that he had returned back to the dreamscape. He was standing in the attic of the Mystery Shack still, which had taken on the form of what seemed like a giant fort made of pillows, blankets, and anything else that could be used. It spread across the whole room, and was making a terrific mess of things, but he was to angry to dwell on this now. Seething, he turned to face Monty. The boy flinched at this familiar reaction, but he tried not to let on how absolutely petrified he was right now.

"Nothing. I just got in to a little argument." He brushed off.

"With mom?" He asked, nervous at the prospects if what she could have faced.

"Yes, with her." The blond hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Why?"

"Because I don't know how to get it in to your irritating child-mentality that I am not going to hurt you, nor will I ever try to do so."

"That's probably because you said the same thing to her before, and you broke it."

Before the man could react, the little boy scampered somewhere else in the fort, making sure that he was out of reach.

"Fine!" He huffed to himself, stomping out of the room.

As soon as he reached the landing of the stairs, he stopped walking and leant against a wall. It dawned on Bill that not only had he gotten Monty to turn on him, Mabel had as well. And knowing the Pines, it would take saving them from certain death before they ever considered glancing in his direction again.


	9. Medicine

**Wow, thanks for all the reviews you guys!**

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**Sarcasm. That was sarcasm. And while I normally like to live up to the "nice Canadian" stereotype, please listen to my virtual sarcastic applause as I say this. Same amount of views per chapter, the same as the usual median, yet one review...**

** I don't write any of my stories to get attention and reviews you guys, I write because I love writing. And I would continue to post chapters and write even if absolutely no one read my stories. The cold shoulder on not one but two of my stories was surprising is all.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

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><p><strong><em>November 30th, Eight Years Prior...<em>**

A man frantically searched around in a forest, looking over an icy pond. It was dark out, near impossible to see. It was snowing as well. It must have been freezing, but he practically striped down to his underwear and jumped in to the freezing water.

After a shocking moment, he pulled out a coughing and sputtering brunette. He pulled off her soaking clothes as well. He quickly wrapped her in his jacket, which practically hung to her shaking knees. The blond pulled her soaking hair away and squeezed it dry the best he could. But there was not much more he could do other than that.

Their clouds of breath mixed together as he did everything in his power to make sure that the woman was mostly dry and starting to warm up before taking care of himself. Both of them tried to walk, but the brunette ended up collapsing on the exposed roots of a tree, that were not yet covered in the snow. He frantically tried to shake her awake, telling her not to fall asleep before he lost her.

"Mabel!" He cried. "Stay awake!"

"But I'm so warm..." She tiredly mumbled.

"NO! You're not warm Mabel, you're numb! You're freezing cold! Stay awake!"

Here she made more of an effort to stay conscious, but it was so hard when all she wanted to do was sleep.

"I'll stay awake." The brunette reassured.

Panicking, the man tried to do everything to keep her from freezing to death. One was not supposed to stop moving when they were cold, but there was no other choice but to let her lay there. He tried to summon a little fire, or at least give off a warming sensation, but it was so difficult and taxing. He was too drained from the cold to do very much to keep her warm. He curled as close as he could to her, and hugged her close to his chest hoping that it would be enough.

He was one of the lucky ones. She seemed to get better, became more lucid and conscious. He on the other hand was shivered, completely freezing as he directed his power to keeping her warm. His own body temperature dropped as he fought to keep her alive. It would take more than that to kill him, but it was dangerous none the less. Suddenly he realized that the brunette was fine, he had saved her.

Tears welled in his eyes, and his throat grew tight as he knew that he was in the clear. He was not going to loose her so soon and so suddenly.

"D-don't do t-t-that again!" He stuttered trying to fight back tears, a hopeless battle.

The woman now turned around to face him, and gave a weak smile.

"Trust me when I say I don't plan on letting that happen to me again."

"Y-you scared me Mabel! I thought that I was going to loose you!"

The blond shamelessly burst in to tears, unable to hide his fear any longer. He hugged to woman tightly to his chest, and refused to let go. She had no problem with this, and let him rock ger back and forth like a baby. Taking the tear-stained side of his face, she tilted his face so she could see him. The brunette pressed her lips rather fiercely against his, just proving how lifeless she really was.

"Shhhhh." She comforted. "I'm not going to leave you. I don't plan on going anywhere Bill."

"Y-you almost died!" He sniffled.

"And I won't do so again." She insisted. "Not now or ever. I will never leave you willingly."

"P-promise?"

Without a moment's hesitation, she replied;

" I promise..."

The couple stood up on shaky feet, and the man slowly carried her back home, unfailing in the will to keep the woman he loved safe.

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><p>Bill was pacing. Pacing and floating. The demon alternated between the two any time his stupid, useless, human legs and feet decided to trip over something as he practically wore a hole in the dreamscape. Not that he hadn't caused mass destruction in it before. This was different. He was so in to his pacing, he did not even realize that he had paced along a wall and on to the ceiling and continued in circles from there. He didn't even realize that his shoes had come off, and he now had several painful splinters lodged within his pathetic human feet.<p>

This was because he was deep in thought, trying to come up with a solution for his latest two problems. Mabel, and her son. Monty was not the biggest issue at the moment. Kids forgot and forgave, kids were innocent and ignorant, too naïve to look at the bigger picture. Even the Pines Twins and Mabel's son weren't an exception to this rule.

He just had to be reminded that in fact, he was still a child. Not the younger Dipper Pines, and not an adult. He would come around if time was given, and so he would. Mabel on the other hand... He had taken advantage of her optimistic nature one time too many, and finding a way to do so again was getting hazardous to his mental health. Not that he had a mind to loose anymore these days.

But whatever she was doing was bring it pretty damn close to it. Her and her stupid human feelings that were making him not act in his better interests. It was only a matter of time before he started to become _caring _and _slightly less inclined to murder people who got in his way. _He shuddered at the thought.

He was becoming split in half again. Division was painful, and not just the mathematic kind. Math, what a waste of time. He was straying from the subject at hand, another trait he had hopped had left him for good, but apparently decided to make a return. There was no denying that his interactions with Mabel and Monty were causing it.

As far as his schemes went, there was no preventing it, and there was no blindsiding it either. He had to accept it, but not let the repressed moral compass he had interfere with his plans for the both of them. Using the deal to twist her son in to his heir of everything, to finally get revenge on the Pines, and to break her. Mabel broken beyond repair, and an heir...

He had repeated the little rhyme to himself whenever he needed the soothing reminder that he was not just laying dormant and trapped in the dreamscape. He was waiting. Carefully calculating for that opportune moment to strike back. The blond had stopped watching in those seven long years.

Did he find it regrettable now? Yes. There were details that he was missing out on. Incomplete stories that he would have to work for to finally learn. But once the remaining two Pines were certain that he had been cowed and would never come after them again, he would prove how hopeless their sense of self-security was. Taking his revenge for- For...

The man felt his expression shift in to a frown. Why did he want revenge on them? What had they done? Dipper was clear enough. Sure he had liked him when he was off solving the mysteries of Gravity Falls. He was curious, unknowing, determined. But this determination was something he would come to loathe as well.

The snot had treated him like the scum of the earth, fought all attempts to be civil. He fought to earn his trust, and in the end it proved fruitless. He snapped. Before he could even cool down and realize the weight of his actions he had scared Mabel away from him for good, and back to her infuriating brother.

It was understandable as to why he would hate Dipper, but not Mabel. He wanted revenge on her for- For all these wasted years! Yes! That was what it was! Having ended up with the short end of the stick. Giving up so much of his identity so the could be together, and never being able to recover it! That's what it must have been! Right? Of course it was, and he would tell her this the next time her saw her, no, he would go tell get now and see how high and mighty she would be after the deal was completed!

A sadistic smile broke out on his face, and he promptly appeared where he always had when looking for her, the attic bedroom.

"Oh Shooting Staaaaarrrr!" The demon gleefully called.

He was met with no reply. There wasn't a pillow or ball of yarn thrown at him, no insistences that her name was Mabel, and to shut up because she was sleeping. Mabel was still laying in bed. She was a heavy sleeper, but she should have woken up unless she had gone without sleep for days. What was the matter with the brunette?

Fever. The demon cautiously wandered closer. The woman's breathing was fine, she looked better than when he had first come to the aid of her. Bill took a few uncharacteristically timid steps closer, expecting her to suddenly awaken. When Mabel didn't he reached out hesitantly and shook her shoulder. This resulted in little more than a tired moan. It was then he felt her forehead, and discovered that the mother was burning up.

Instantly Bill thought back to what she said before about not feeling well, and how tired she was. Mabel was never tired! She had always been filled with boundless energy, and that should have been his first hint towards the fact that she was nowhere bear as well as she pretended to be.

Mabel was suffering from a fever. This would have been nothing to any ordinary person, but she was malnourished, and probably didn't have any medicine. Without it the harmless fever turned in to a deadly contraction her immune system could not fight off. It would surely kill her without treatment.

"Idiot!" He roared to himself.

Whether this was directed towards Mabel or himself was unknown. He had been reluctant to do much to help her and now he had to deal with her sickness. The blond practically tore through the Mystery Shack. With simple flicks of his hands the electricity was turned back on, and the water from the taps ran clean once more. Without a care in the world, he pulled Mabel out of bed. The matress was flipped and cleaned, the brunette was suddenly devoid of grime and her hair was fixed back to it's former beautiful glory.

He tugged off her disgusting sweater, skirt, and underthings. Nearly all of her clothes had been taken with her as she left Gravity Falls, but there was still a pair of flannel pyjamas. They were green, with white polka dots and little fluffy dogs on them.

Thinking back to a few of the medicines he had remembered over the years, he soon found the right medication Mabel needed to fight off her fever. Rubbing her throat, he made the brunette swallow the medicine. Hopefullyit would not take very long to come into effect.

If anyone or anything thought they could hurt Mabel before he did, they would be sadly mistaken.

* * *

><p>Dipper had been circling around the area of Gravity Falls as best as he could, trying to find a way in to the town. But it seemed impossible. All of the roadway entrances were blocked off with that same horrific sign depicting Gideon and his sister. The trip through the mountains was one that was too harsh for him to make.<p>

He wasn't fully recovered from his trip hiding the journals. He had already spent the majority of his summer blindly stumbling around a rainforest, and he didn't plan to do the same thing back in Gravity Falls. But this left him with very limited options to get in to the town.

Unless he decided to go up the mountain and follow the river that cascaded in to the famous waterfalls, there was not much he could do. And it wasn't like he could go over the waterfalls either. The roads were all obstructed in the same way, and the entrances to the town were no doubt being watched by some sort of force Gideon had.

Curse that albino and everything he stood for! The ex-child star just never gave up, he was too persistent to get his way. He had never won before, and he would not do so this time either. But that did not mean he or Mabel had escaped unscathed many times. Gideon was one of the few beings who Dipper had faced off with both physically and mentally. Bill was the only exception to this rule, but Bill was the exception every and every rule as well.

But at least the demon pretended that he would not find a way to come back and get his revenge for a few years! Gideon just never seemed to give up in his plans. They were unchanged after all these years. Rule Gravity Falls with Mabel as his queen by his side.

The sickening fascination the man had with his sister had never seemed to subside, only growing more dangerous and unstable as the years flew by. Why did Mabel keep Gideon's interest? Was it the spoiled brat syndrome, where no one had ever denied giving him something until Mabel came along? Or was it worse than that? It almost seemed like Mabel played an even bigger part in his plans...

Dipper may have not cared for his sister after so much of their trust had been killed, but he didn't loathe her enough to not help her. She was a human being, and that was enough to make him see reason enough to not let her suffer under the hands of that crazy. Even if Mabel did had a knack for attracting obsessive psychopaths. Bill could attest to that. The ex-Mystery Twin would start building an ark and loading animals two-by-two on it before he trusted Mabel ever again...

Ark... Something about that caught his attention, but he was not quite sure what it could be. What were synonyms for the word? Boat, ship, ferry... Gravity Falls had a ferry or two didn't it? There were those cargo ships that showed up as well, fishing boats too... Would it be hard to sneak on to one, and stow away in to the seemingly inaccessible town?

There was only one way to figure out, and that was to set the plan in motion. He would need to go farther down stream, to where the lake flowed out and in to the ocean though. From there he would be able to find some sort of transportation. Plans now forming in his kind, Dipper made the journey along a rarely-used forest road.

Only the occasionally fishers journeyed down this path. It was wild and grown over, but this hardly posted any sort of problem to him. He had been through much more unforgiving forest than this. The blackflies and mosquitos trying to bite him were almost a welcoming sight!

Eventually, he spotted the body of water, flashing in the evening light. This was perfect. Surely a ship would pass when it was dark, a slow-moving one most likely. But how would he get on? Even if he wasn't going to be spotted, his efforts would be useless if he could not get on. The current was a risky thing to face, especially with the undertow pulling at him. Well, what did he have on him? Vest, hat, car keys... The usual? What did he have that he could use?

"The journal!" Dipper instinctively responded.

The man's temporary exhilaration gave away to frustration. He had just gotten rid of the journals! He couldn't just rely on those books! He was never letting them control his life and actions again! It seemed like they had literally never helped him once in all his years of having all three!

_"Mabel, that grappling hook has literally never helped us once!"_

"That's it!" He gasped, as fate gave him a sign.

Rummaging through his endless pockets in his vest, Dipper pulled out his former sister's cherished grappling hook. He had confiscated it from her once he discovered that she was using it to sneak out of the Mystery Shack and get back in to and after seeing Bill. Of course this didn't stop her for a moment, but now was not the time to dwell on past events.

Dipper gave a few test fires, and was happy to find that it was still in perfect working order, hooking in to wherever he aimed. It did not take the man very long to wait for a ship to appear. It was a fairly small fishing boat, that was quickly zipping along. With a mechanical click, the well-aimed grappling hook latched on to the railing of the boat, only now came the difficult part. He took a step back, and then began running, trying to make the longest leap possible out in to the water.

He landed with a freezing cold splash, and felt the current already tugging at the bottoms of his shoes. He slowly let the hook retract, and pull him closer to the edge of the boat. He finally reached the rails, and heaved himself on to the side, couching up water and shaking his hair as he tried to rid himself of the frigid water. It was cool, but hot so bad that he would get sick. More of a cold shower than anything.

He was on. And safe. Slowly making his way back to Gravity Falls.


	10. Malady

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>December 2nd, Eight Years Prior<strong>_

"Bill."

"Yes Shooting Star?"

"Stop flicking my hair. Everyone thinks that a ghost has been following me."

"Well that's their problem now isn't it?"

"It's not nice to- OW!" Mabel was cut off with a yelp of pain when the demon decided to pull her hair instead.

She attempted to slap away his hands, but he just passed through her. The demon could really up the annoying factor when he wanted to. This so happened to be one of those times where he was really, really, upping that irritating side of him. He had not stopped following Mabel around for days on end now. The brunette knew that he did have better things he could be doing, but for some reason he felt insistent on making sure that she wasn't going to fall in to another icy pond and nearly freeze to death.

She had been fine afterwards! Only a little cold plaguing her! Currently she was laying in bed, covered in a mountain of kleenex. It left Waddles rather disgruntled as she blew her nose every five seconds, and the pig had ended up wandering over to sleep with Stan instead. The old man pretended to not like it, but he secretly did find the pig's tiny snores cute.

In part of the demon's never leaving her side idea, he had been doing practically everything for her as well. He had brought her most of the boxes of kleenex, making sure that they were the soft kind and had pictures of cute animals or flowers on the side. He had also made her alphabet soup, and made a point of putting in extra vowels so she could spell more things with the pasta letters. And he was always on her every beck and call, even taking Waddles on his usual walk and "conversing" with the pig that hated his guts. Well, Mabel said that the pig liked him, and he chewed Stan's pants as well, but it seemed suspicious to him.

But the point was that it was sweet of him, even if he liked to give her some agony for winding up like this in the first place. But Mabel suspected that this was his subtle way of being mad at her for nearly dying. He had done this all while being invisible so Dipper would not bother him and insist that it was a trick.

Now Mabel sat slightly upright in bed, leaning against the blond who was holding her in his arms. It was night-time outside, and the only light in the room came from the glow of the moon that shone through the triangular window. It dimly illuminated the room with a silvery glow, revealing the opaque spots where his shadow cast.

The man had absent-mindedly flicking little strands of her hair, occasionally twisting a lock around one of his fingers, or pulling at one of her curls and watching it spring back in to place. It was those little actions that were bothering her, as she tried to fall asleep.

"Please stop it." She sighed, stifling a yawn. "I can't sleep when you do that."

"I know." He simply replied, taking two parts and starting a tiny french twist.

"Then stop!" The young woman insisted, farther snuggling in to his arms. "I'm tired. I want to fall back asleep."

"I don't want you to."

A bit surprised by this, the brunette turned slightly to look up at the man. His face was half-cast in the shadows, and it was impossible to read his expression as he intently stared at the hair wrapped around his fingers. He just continued to tie it in various braids.

"Why?"

He paused his braiding, leaving the plait only partly finished. The blond tried not to seem overly creepy as he took a deep inhale, letting the deliciously sweet smell of her hair invade his senses. Berries of some sort, and something vert sweet that made it almost sickly. But nonetheless, it was her own scent, and it drove him practically wild. Like Mabel, it was truly unique, and he had no idea what he would do without them.

"Because if you fall back asleep, I'm afraid that one day you'll never wake up. And then I'll have to live through the rest of eternity without you."

* * *

><p>To say the attic of the Mystery Shack was a mess currently happened to be an understatement. What had originally started out as a fairly small pillow fort expanded across the whole entire room now that Monty had the help of the other boy to add to it.<p>

The boxes in the crawl-space near the ceiling had been pushed forwards, allowing room for one to climb up and sit there, while still having a stack of boxes to protect you. Some completely sealed cartons they had found earlier were stacked over where the beds were, forming a solid wall for part of a fort. There was a small space between the two parallel sections, allowing a little room for them to navigate.

Monty had chosen the side with the beds and larger pillow fort as his own base, not wanting to be squashed near the ceiling. The blond boy on the other hand had taken the crawl-space as his own, not minding the height. He had the aerial advantage, but smaller space. They had taken opposing sides and firing nyarf bullets at each other, playfully telling them to surrender.

The conflict had sprouted when neither one could agree on what to play with their new-found fort. Monty wanted to do soldiers, while the other boy wanted to do pirates. Which was how they found themselves firing the harmless foam pellets at each other in an attempt to make the other one surrender.

"Give up!" Mabel's son insisted, fixing his three-corned hat he had imagined.

"Never!" The other boy replied, brandishing his pirate sword.

They were about to engage in another round of war, when suddenly Bill floated in to the room.

"It's a spy!" Monty declared.

"Kill him!"

The demon suddenly found himself being pelted at with the nyarf bullets, all of them sticking. Trying to cover his face and surrender at the same time, he helplessly cried;

"No! Stop! Grunkle! Whatever the saying is!"

The boys, now banded together left their respective bases. They kept their plastic weapons trained on the demon as they inched closer. The blond picked up a roll of duct tape and gave a devilish grin. Monty mirrored the expression, knowing exactly what he had in mind for the older man. Taking a deep breath, they yelled at the same time;

"Tie up the traitor!"

Bill amusedly let his hands and feet be taped together by the two, sitting there on the ground as they debated what to do with him next.

"Arrr! I say we throw him to the sharks!"

"No! He must be hung for treason!"

"Sharks!"

"Treason!"

"Sharks!"

Once more, the two shared a disarming, diabolical grin. The same idea struck them at the same time. It was the absolute best solution to their ideas ever.

"Why don't we-"

"-hang him-"

"-over the sharks?!"

"Perfect!" They finished at the same time.

The blond boy turned to face his older counterpart. He stuck his toy sword to the man's throat, and mustered up all the dislike he possibly little boy sneered down at him.

"What do you think spy?"

Playing his role, the man cried;

"Oh no! Not the sharks! I'm allergic to them!"

Monty tilted his head in curiosity.

"How can you be allergic to sharks? You'd have to eat it!"

The other boy gave him a slight nudge in the ribs.

"It doesn't have to be realistic all the time, remember?"

Mabel's son gave a nod, and his grin reappeared. Sometimes he forgot that everything did not have to be completely real. He could stretch what was really possible, imagine things. It was not really something he had done a lot of before, so he didn't really play with that many people. Pointing his toy nyarf gun at the blond man once more, he cheerfully declared;

"We need to hang him over the sharks!"

They quickly searched the room for what the sharks could possibly be. Rummaging through a few crates with the animal parts in them, the blond boy found a few animal jaws with the teeth still attached. Monty found a few mousetraps, that were currently disarmed. Pulling at a very long chain link, he also found a great, large, bear trap.

"Any last words spy?" The blond asked.

"If you feed me to the sharks, sorry, hang me over the sharks, you won't have anyone there to help you tidy up this mess!"

The boys froze in their antics at this. Turning to face their divided halves of the room, they realized that both were very messy with all of their construction. It would take a long time to put back everything. The extra hand would help them tidy up a lot faster than doing it themselves, even if that would still require some effort on their part. They quickly pulled the tape off of the man, who gladly stood up and rubbed his formerly bound wrists.

"Do we have to tidy up?" The boy whined.

"Yes, you have to clean up your own messes."

"But Monty did most of the building!" He insisted, trying to blame it on the other boy.

The smaller boy was surprised that the demon's supposed good intentions and innocence would try to blame most of their fort-building on him, but did not try to protest the claim at all. It _did _ happen to be true. To his great surprise though, the demon came to his defense. Fixing his innocence with a stern look, he informed him;

"It's not nice to sell people out."

"But you do it all the time!" He exclaimed.

"I'm not nice, which is why you exist." Raising an eyebrow, he added; "That is, unless you'd like to stop existing?"

A little apprehension flitted across his face at this. He quickly hugged the man's leg, and stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Please don't change."

"I don't plan on doing too much changing kiddo."

Monty watched the two with an odd feeling pooling in his stomach. The man ruffled his tiny look-alike's blond hair. The boy in turn pretended to scowl and dodge the small gesture of affection, but hugged him around the leg once more. Mabel's son cleared his throat, trying to remind the two that he was still with them. Despite his earlier playfulness, he managed to sound distant enough as he asked;

"Why are you back?"

Straightening back to his usual dignified posture, he looked at him with a bit of discomfort.

"I just wanted to ask Mini-Me here a question, and make sure that you hadn't decided to run off."

_"I was going to until I realized that because of the deal you'd be able to find me. And it's not polite to read people's minds by the way."_

_"Telepathy is an amazing thing." _He silently relayed to the dirty-blond.

"Ask away." Monty said aloud.

Bill wanted to state that it was something he would prefer to just ask the other boy, but he knew that the trust issues Monty had were already painful enough.

"It's sort of a weird question, but do either of you remember what shampoo Mabel uses?"

"Why?"

"Because she needs to wash her hair." The man-half told. Mabel did need to wash her hair, but she was still unconscious and sick. And he wanted it to smell the same as it used to as well.

"Why do you need the specifics?"

"Because I want her hair to smell the same." He absently replied, too lost in trying to recall what she used to realize what she had said.

The little boy grew cold at this.

"How would you know what her hair smells like?"

Bill was too distracted to realize how much he was revealing to Monty as he tried to remember what exactly kept Mabel's hair so perfect. His miniature self was also lost deep in thought as he attempted to recall that particular smell also.

"strawberries and cream maybe? Hmm? We were really close, it's just one of those things your remember..."

"How close were you?"

"Perhaps she mixed two? We sort of had a falling out a day or two before the wedding. Stupid brother of her's fault. Maybe it was raspberry and vanilla? Something very sweet. Almost too sweet to be edible."

"What happened?"

"Are you even following me on this train of thought? He tricked me in to killing her great-uncle. First time I ever felt remorse over a death as well. Haven't killed since then. Anyways, so it could be a combination then of the two of them maybe?"

Monty felt his blood run even colder as he heard this. From watching the demon play along with their games, to carelessly admitting that he had killed before, more than once, that he was a murder... It was scary. It was truly the definition of trust no one.

"That's it! She mixed the two and added in liquefied sprinkles to make is taste good if it got in her mouth! Thanks kiddo!"

Before the little boy could speak again, the man had ruffled his hair. He dashed out of the room, completely oblivious to all the things he had just admitted to Mabel's son.

* * *

><p>If there was one thing that Dipper had learned in all of his time stowed away on the ship to Gravity Falls, it was that barrels were a lot less spacious than they appeared to be on the inside. He was currently sitting crouched, painfully so, inside of the latter storage container. The man could just barely squeeze in to the barrel, and he doubted that having his shoulders wedge in the current position they rested in was doing him any good.<p>

All he had on him was the grappling hook, which made the ex-Mystery Twin feel fairly defenseless against anything that might possibly be thrown his way. He had not heard anyone on board the ship so far. All of the people on board must have been off doing something else. But things did not seem inclined to stay that way.

The man was caught off guard as the heavy footsteps of someone headed in his general direction. And stopped right in front of the barrels where he was currently hidden. What if someone discovered him? Dipper tensed, preparing to spring in to action if needed.

But no one opened his hiding spot. He heard a little noise with the other barrels though. Almost like they were being moved, or perhaps rolled. Dipper suddenly let out an exclamation of surprise as the barrel was tilted on it's side and someone started to roll him somewhere. He continued to be tumbled over and over again, to the point where he started to feel sick to his stomach. It was like being in an out of control human-sized hamster ball! Eventually he came to a stop, and the man gave a grateful moan.

Suddenly, there was a large crashing sound above his head. He found himself blinking and confused in the bright light of someone's flashlight, which was pointed right at his eyes. Dipper felt his heart sink to his already churning stomach. He had been found out, and he had failed his sister...

The man lay there on the floor, his arms and legs were still too stiff from waiting in hiding for so long. He was trying to suppress the nauseous feeling in his stomach, but the blinding light shining in his eyes was only making the matter worse. He waited for whoever it was to finally make a move and snap out of their surprise.

The ship's worker finally did after a split second hesitation, and hauled Dipper to his feet. The man felt himself being dragged somewhere, and he heard a door slam shut behind him. He was left standing, wherever he was, and he cautiously peeked out of one eye, hoping that they had adjusted.

"Dipper, what are you doing back dude?"

Shocked, Dipper opened both eyes. He was surprised to find none other than Soos standing in front of him, dressed in a yellow rain-slicker that covered him from head to rubber-boots toe. His trademark ball-cap had been replaced with a matching rain-hat.

"S-Soos?" He asked in surprise.

"Well what did ya' expect?" He grinned. "Some sort of brainless slave who worked for Gideon?"

"I snuck aboard a ship that was called _The Lil' Ol' Me, _I kinda figured that-"

"Nah, I gettcha' dude." Soos said. "I'm just pretending tha Gideon was actually able to brainwash me."

"What do you mean pretend? How come it didn't work on you? What did he do?"

"It's a long story dude. But the bottom line is that, he's got these crazy-mad powers now. He just snapped his fingers and pow! Everyone did what he wanted! But for some reason it didn't work on me."

People did everything he wanted? What about Mabel? Was she able to fight back? Dipper felt his already unsettled stomach settle with an icy feeling at the thought of his sister having to obey his every command.

"What sort of powers?" He asked, trying to suppress the bile rising in his throat.

"Powerful ones." The man-child repeated.

"Was he holding a tie of sorts?" Dipper asked, thinking back to Gideon's amulet.

"No. Everything just did what he wanted when he wanted. He barely had to life a finger and he had full control over Gravity Falls."

Dipper shook his head in disgust and frustration. This never would have happened if he hadn't left Gravity Falls for the time being! He had only hidden his copy of the journals, along with the first volume Stan had left behind after his death. He never knew the fate of Gideon's old copy though. It had gone missing, Dipper had assumed that Bill got his wish and destroyed it. But what if he hadn't? What if the book was still floating out there, waiting for someone, or even worse, Gideon?

Gideon was almost as obsessed with the journals as he was with Mabel, possibly more. It was completely possible that he had found a way to get his hands on it. The albino had made plenty of allies in prison. What was stopping one of those friends from leaving on parole, finding the book, and then giving it to Gideon as a supposed present? Escaping from prison would be a piece of cake from there! And by now, who knew what he could possibly be up against?!

Focusing his attention back on the handy-man, Dipper asked;

"So what have you been doing?"

"I'm supposed to patrol the river for intruders." The man-child shrugged. "No one's ever here though. We're too far from most of civilization and off the maps anyways."

"I take it he searched the Shack?"

"Probably dude. But I was running it like you said when Mabel and Monty stopped by."

Dipper looked at Soos in confusion.

"Who's Monty?"

Soos stared at his friend like he was crazy.

"Don't you remember dude? Monty? Montgomery Dipper Pi- Hirsch? Mabel's son. A little dude." He elaborated, indicating the boy's height. "Looks like you, but with blond hair. Few freckles too."

Dipper bristled at the elaboration. Soos could really be oblivious to things at times. The man felt his hands curl in to fists so tight that his nails left little marks. That child was the embodiment of everything that was evil and dark in the world.

He didn't care about Mabel's insistence that he was a good boy, and nothing like his father. Obviously she did not realize how she had made similar pleas when she was dating that monster. How she had begged for him to give the demon a chance, and see for himself.

The ex-Mystery Twin was tired of it. All the excuses, the truths that bordered on lies. Crossed fingers, secrets, and mystery. Gravity Falls had beaten him, the journals had taken their toll on the weary traveler. He didn't want to see the shades of grey the world truly was anymore. He had put up with it long enough.

Not everyone was redeemable, not everyone was who they were told to be. Actions would always speak louder than words, and as he watched his Grunkle's death right before his eyes, all of Mabel's words just seemed to worthless. There was no in between. Just good, bad. And he would belive so for the rest of his life.

Finally, he took a shuddering breath. Counting to ten, he steadily replied;

"No, I wouldn't know. I haven't seen Mabel since she was disowned."

The man-child's brow furrowed slightly. Shifting in his spot and staring at the water-slicked floor, he voiced;

"I've been meaning to ask you about that since Mabel came back."

"Ask what?"

He grew more uncomfortable at this, and seemed to shrink back in to his rain slicker.

"You said that you had talked to Mabel, sort of kept in touch. But she said that you..."

"Hung up, didn't reply, and changed my cell number and email?" He finished. "It's true."

"But when I asked you-"

"I technically talked to her didn't I?"

Soos wanted to protest at his hypocritical statement. He had always gone on about how Bill's supposed truths were nothing more then twisted words and empty promises. Yet here he was pretending to be an innocent, a victim, when his hands were stained with just as much blood as the demon he had unintentionally framed for the death of Stanford Pines.

* * *

><p>The return trip to the Mystery Shack was something that Bill found himself growing used to doing once again. Following the habit he had not lost even after seven going on eight years of never using, he made sure to appear closest to where ever Mabel was. The woman was still laying in bed, the same position which he had left her in before.<p>

Feeling one of her still rosy cheeks, he noted a definite decrease in temperature. He had made sure to pay attention to the time before he left, and knew that it was safe to now give her yet another dose of medicine. He did so, and then carefully picked her up and floated over to the bathroom.

He fished under the sink, and gave a satisfied smirk as he found a fair-sized basin. He ran the water in the bathtub until it was nearly scorching. Then, he filled up the basin and placed on the floor. Then, he pulled out the particular bottle of shampoo he was so fond of. After rapidly tearing through a few of his more... Intimate memories, he had found exactly what he was looking for. And making it real only caused a small tear in the fabric of the universe, so he was scott-free.

Now, the man angled her head so that her hair was able to soak in the water. He carefully pulled a comb through her long locks, making sure not to tear snags unnecessarily. Then came actually washing her hair. He had to fight back the impulse to stop washing her hair and let the memories wash over him. Instead, the man settled for giving a content sign as a warm, very content feeling set in his chest.

It was this sigh that woke up Mabel. The brunette was surprised to find that her head was immersed in something warm, and something was pulling lightly at her hair. She felt so relaxed that she was almost lulled back to sleep by this. Mabel noted that her aches were gone, and her head felt a lot less stuffy and confused.

There was still a tiny uncomfortable sensation nagging her. But for the most part, she felt better. And tired. Curious as to what could be going on, her eyes fluttered open. A comically surprised Bill was what she was met with. Clearing his throat in embarrassment, he softly said;

"Hey."

Surprised, but not overly bothered, she tiredly smiled back;

"Hey."

They were quiet for a few blissful moments more. Then, she quietly asked;

"What happened?"

"You're sick."

"Well I know that doofus." She said, grin growing wider. "I think I remember yelling at you. Sleep-walking almost."

"You did."

"Why?"

"Because you were mad."

"Why?"

"Because of the past."

"What about the past?"

"I've come to a decision." He declared.

"About what?"

"You."

"And?"

"Obsessing over you is getting nowhere isn't it?"

"Yes. It is."

"Help me stop."

She looked up at the man in surprise, wondering if he was truly being serious. He wanted to finally stop chasing after her? Honestly and truly after years and years? The nightmares and threats that kept her up through the night, waiting for him to return.

"How would I do that?" She wondered.

" I want to earn your trust without having to change who I am for you."

"You're crazy."

The blond gave her a lopsided smile, followed by a cheeky wink. Mabel could not help but giggle hoarsely at a gesture that was very familiar to her. What might have been mistaken for blatant flirting by anyone else meant something else to her. And no matter how many times he made the face, she could never bring herself to not laugh at the expression. Even when she was supposed to be mad at him, a hint of a smile would cross her face.

"I know." He grinned, leaning closer to her face.

More than familiar with the sneaky strategy, Mabel pushed his face away from hers.

"Nice try mister." She scolded. "But I know a fast one when I-"

Mabel paused, as a small coughing fit wracked through her body. Bill backed away slightly, giving her room.

"See? If you had kissed me, you would have caught my sick!"

Bill tried to look innocent, but that was more of a lost cause than anything. The guileless look had never suited him, it was one of the few things the demon couldn't do.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't." She grinned.

"So you'll help me?"

The woman was silent. She shut her eyes, and slowly took a deep inhale. What should she do? Was it a trick? Did he even deserve the barest thought that he wanted to redeem himself for real this time. No, she shouldn't consider. But, there was still something else to his words. Bill wanted to change, not redeem himself or tear his personality in half so he could behave. That was different. It was finding that middle ground, a lighter shade of grey.

Even if it was a trick, there was nothing worse that she could face. There would be no slap of discovery and betrayal. There would be no unforgiving sibling to state; "I told you so." Without ever listening to the whole story, discovering that she had never broken her promise. That not everything she did with the man left her fully willing to agree. Even she could be pressured, no matter how resistant she could seem at times.

"I don't care what motivations you might have behind it. I'll help you."


	11. Mindscape

**Ha, I love the flashback in this chapter. It was just the best thing ever to write, and is absolute, purely Mabel's reaction to anyone trying to do anything to her. But, ignore the rambling of a crazy Ekat in deep need of sleep, and instead read for yourself!**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><strong>May 30th, eight years prior<strong>

Mabel was glaring at the subject of her current utter loathing. She was not normally one for such strong feelings of dislike, but this felt more justified. The person in question was not actually a person, but a demon. A conniving, half-truth telling, manipulative, murderous, psychopathic kidnapper with a name that better suited a cereal mascot than a real person.

For whatever reason he decided that being a human was all that bad, and had taken on that form, and he also decided to add kidnapping to his résumé of evil crimes that he had just so happened to have committed. Now Mabel found herself glaring at him from across the bars of her cage, preparing to start a full-blown argument with the jerk who had interrupted her latest date, loudly announcing that she was now his hostage and she could scream in fear if she wanted to.

Of course Mabel didn't scream in fear, she slapped him and returned to her date and finished desert. Bill actually waited until the cheque for the meal had come before doing anything. From there, he had left the poor man Mabel had been on a date on with a rather large tab to cover. It didn't seem likely that he would be calling back to ask her out again any time soon.

The brunette was more concerned with trivial things than the fact that she was currently standing in a cage that was dangling over a pit that was supposedly filled with her worst nightmares. Bill had completely just ruined the date by kidnapping her! What a jerk! He could have at least waited until she paid her part and got promises to talk with the other guy again! Where was his sense of romance?! He could have been her dream guy, and now she would most likely never know.

Kidnapping by gnomes and Gideon was nothing new, Mabel was familiar with the same old drill. Bill was no different with the whole; "Haha I shall use my nemesis' sister against him!" Idea. It was a bit sad really. Talk about unoriginal planning!

"Hello? Earth to Shooting Star!" The demon said, waving a hand in front of her face. "I've just kidnapped you, and you're more worried about how your date just ended?!"

"You left him with a bill for three hundred dollars!" Mabel angrily pointed out. "And your kidnapping skills suck! Keeping someone in a cage went out of style six years ago!"

"Did it really?" He wondered, turning a little red. "Never noti-"

"-Complete disregard for the basic guide to holding someone hostage!"

"But-"

"-And don't even get me started on your terrible ways to inspire fear tactics! I mean, worst nightmares, really?!"

"Hey! I'm a dream-demon, I've got to work with what-"

"And the bars of this cage are made out of paper-mâché that's been painted-"

"ALRIGHT! I GET IT! KIDNAPPING IS NOT MY FORTÉ! ARE YOU HAPPY?!"

Mabel crossed her arms, glaring at the demon.

"I've just been kidnapped by the missing link of Several Times, and you're asking if I'm happy?!"

"Yes! I mean no! I mean- Just play the role of a helpless innocent!"

The brunette only grew more fierce and hostile as she heard this particular phrasing of words.

"Oh, why. Because I'm a _female_?! I'm too helpless to take care of myself?! I'm just a fragile innocent caught in the middle?! Is that it you sexist, misogynistic, formerly triangular-shaped jerk?! It is, isn't it! Why I oughtta' slip out of these perfectly proportioned bars of this cage made out of glue and paper and-

Bill covered his ears as Mabel just went on and on, yelling and screaming and threatening him with cruel and unusual punishment for attempting to kidnap her. The demon never would have thought that she had such large vocabulary when threatening to trick Soos in to thinking that he was a nacho chip and eating him. It actually almost made him feel slightly uncomfortable. Did she ever close her mouth?!

"Stop it!" He finally yelled. "Just stop it already! I kidnapped you instead of your brother because you're always helpless without him!"

"Liar! I am not!"

"Oh yeah?" The demon challenged. "Well what about the time when those gnomes kidnapped you? Well, the first that is. They've gone after you like what? Twenty-four times now?"

Mabel froze in her rant here. Suddenly she found herself quietly trying to stutter excuses as the demon went on to list all the times she had been dependent on her brother.

"I-it was just-"

"-And Gideon the walking marshmallow would have if not for your brother. Plus there was-"

"No! I would have-"

"There was the time when he saved your from eternal miserableness."

"It was j-just t-"

"And when he helped you out with that merman-"

"N-no-"

"He saved you from those ghosts in the haunted convenience store as you were hyped up on illegal sugar candy."

"And all those other times Gideon went after you."

"Dipper was just-"

"And who could forget the cherry on top?" Bill grinned. "If my flawless memory recalls, it was your brother who saved you from me while in Stan's mind!"

Mabel burst in to tears. And it was here that the demon realized that Mabel crying was a lot more annoying than her yelling and criticising his kidnapping skills. He gave a groan of frustration, and dragged a hand across his face. There really was no winning.

"Stop crying." He sighed. "You sound even more annoying this way."

This only made the brunette sob harder.

"Look, if I ask nicely will you promise to never make another noise while in my presence again?"

No reply, she just went on! And on, and on! There was no end to the young woman's theatrics!

"Stop crying! You can fit through the bars of your cage for a reason! It's evil villain clichés 1O1! Just stop crying already! I can't take any more!"

"N-no I c-can't!" She stuttered.

"Yes you can." He pointed out. "I can fit through them as well."

"Prove it." Mabel sniffled.

The demon slipped part way through the bars, intending to prove his point, but he suddenly found himself unable to move. His shoulders! His human shoulders, curse the useless joints, were suck at just the right angle! He tried to pull himself loose, but to no avail.

"Errr, hey there Shooting Star, ummm, you wouldn't mind helping get me out of this would you?"

Mabel looked up from her hands, revealing bone-dry cheeks.

"Actually, I would mind." She grinned.

The demon watched in shock, unable to do anything as Mabel slipped through the bars of the cage, an easy feat considering how much smaller she was than him. She had just tricked him! And he completely fell for it hook line and sinker!

"Oh this isn't over." He growled. "I'll get out of this eventually!"

"That's what they all say!" Mabel paused, and then frowned. "And come to think of it, they're always right."

"I'll be back!" He insisted.

The brunette could not help but smile at this.

"I'm sure you will be. I'm sure you will..."

* * *

><p>The couple was quietly sitting in Mabel's attic bedroom now. Mabel sitting on the edge of the bed as Bill ran a hair brush through her still drying locks. They had remained relatively silent, not wanting to talk all that much. Mabel had asked the usual questions in consderation towards her son. If he was doing any better, how his "studies" were doing and so on.<p>

Beyond that, there was nothing much to talk about. Neither one was very caught up in their own little worlds, it was just that they did not particularly feel like striking up a conversation. Rather, Mabel didn't and she assumed the same about Bill who was seemingly staring off in to space. But this idea was proven wrong as he finally worked up the gall to say what he had been wanting to say for a while now.

"Where do you keep the ring?" The man asked.

Mabel rose an eyebrow, and then gestured to the ring resting on her ring finger. No matter how hard she tried, Mabel could not pull the pesky thing off. Mabel was not sure what Gideon had done to ensure it was so, but she knew that it could not be very benign to herself. The control he had over everyone was already alarming enough, what length would he got to in order to ensure that she could never take off the ring?

"Not that one, the one I gave you."

The brunette was surprised, but nevertheless pointed to her left ear, where a hoop earing that was attached to a larger circle hung. BIll recognized it as he had taken off her earings before laying her back down in bed while she was sick. She had a matching one on the other side, only it wasn't quite the same. Prying at a little catch, she removed the hoop, and displayed his own engagement ring that she could not bring herself to toss away.

Not out of emotional closeness, but out of a literal sense. Like Gideon, he had gone through some lengths when getting her to agree to mary him. Only, Mabel was aware that she would not be able to take off the ring once he gave it to her. But she had more leeway than with Gideon. As long as it was on her person, she could freely take it off. The demon had warned her of this beforehand, but had not given the full explanation as to why.

"I never did explain how it was you wouldn't be able to take it off." He quietly began.

"No, too much happened all at once." She agreed.

"What would you do if I told you that in agreeing to marry me, there was no way for you to back out of it, even if you wanted to. Even if you ran as far as your feet could carry you, the inevitable forces of fate or whatever it is that likes to be higher up than me would pull you back eventually?"

Mabel stared at the man, and knew that it was no hypothetical question that he was posing. Why did these things happen to her?! Why was it that they always happened to her?! How come she could never get a break from the cars she liked to be handed at times?!

"I'd ask three questions." She sighed.

"What?"

"First, is there any way to break it? Second, why did you never tell me? And why now?"

The demon took a painful swallow.

"There's probably something, but getting rid of the bond would probably involve mass-murder and rituals that we'd be better off leaving alone."

"Isn't it always that way?"

"Of course it is. It's called an unbreakable engagement bond for a reason."

"This is why you've been insisting that I could never escape you, not even in my sleep isn't it?" She inferred.

The man gave a slightly guilty nod at this, thinking back to all of the times he had manipulated her dreams, made her stand at the altar with him as he explained in not so many words that she would never be able to leave his side once again.

"And you didn't tell me before because?"

"Well I told you now because I want you to know why I want to win you back. I don't want you to be completely miserable when we end up as mates for life."

"When, or if?"

"It's more likely to be a when we end up together, not if."

Mabel took a deep inhale. She would have to marry him. No matter what she did, where she ran, how well she hid... She should have known that there was more meaning them she could ever imagine every time he stated that she was his. But, at least he was not actually trying to pressure her in to marrying right away. He was still the man she had once known, and he wanted her to at least be happy and not feel as trapped in an unbreakable engagement.

"Believe me when I say that I've already resigned myself to the fact." Mabel said. "But why didn't you tell me before?"

The man took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to word it without sounding too terrible.

"I didn't tell you before because your brother said it would be better if you didn't know what marrying me would only way you'd be able to escape after being married to me would be if-"

"If what?" Mabel asked, ready to do almost anything.

"You'd never do it." He sighed. "And I don't want to tell you because then you'd debate letting me..."

"Letting you what?"

"SubmittomebirthmyheirletmeraiseitasmysuccessorasMasteroftheMind!"

"I'm going to pretend that I never heard that." Mabel said, narrowing her eyes. "And instead ask how _Dipper _knew what I was getting in to, but I didn't."

"The journal."

"Of course, the journal!" She choked, tears welling in her eyes. "Is that always the answer?"

"Unfortunately so."

"A-and he knew a-all along?" She sobbed in frustration.

"I asked him if I should bring it up before proposing. I was scared that I was going to loose you if I told you! And I was scared that I was going to loose you if I didn't!"

"H-he told y-y-you not to?!"

"He said that-"

"My sister is an air-head, she'd say yes without thinking about the consequences either way."

Bill and Mabel both gave small gasps of surprise, and turned around to face none other than Dipper.

* * *

><p>The boys were sitting on the kitchen counter of the Mystery Shack, having just raided the kitchen for food. Monty settled with a few baby carrots, but the other boy refused to eat anything else other than a cookie. He had been trying to reach for the jar for some time now, but was having trouble getting to the top of the fridge.<p>

"Come on! Just eat the carrot!"

"No!" He refused. "Carrots are yucky!"

"Just try one!" Monty insisted.

"No! Food isn't orange!" The blond boy insisted.

"Cookies aren't food!"

"And neither are carrots! Or those fruit balls!"

"They're called apples. And they are food."

"A likely story." The other boy growled.

He glared at the fruits, which just so happened to be in his reach, while the jar filled with cookies had the audacity to be placed on top og the fridge. The blond boy gave a few springing leaps, trying to reach the desired object. It was all to no avail as it seemed just out of his reach. Finally, Monty rolled his eyes and said;

"Just imagine a ladder."

He did so for the other boy, and he eagerly scurried to the top of the fridge and happily munched on the cookies that were being kept in the jar. Between mouthfuls of chocolate chips, the blonde curiously asked;

"How did you do that?"

"I just imagined that there was a ladder by the fridge." He shrugged. "Why? Can"t you?"

"I'm a part of Bill's mind. I don't have thoughts and dreams of my own. He says that I should consider myself a very life-like imaginary friend. Once he grows out of me, I'll vanish."

"How could he grow out of you?" Monty inquired.

"If he started to be less evil again." He shuddered. "That's why I hope that he won't change and leave me alone again."

"I doubt that you'll need to worry about that." Monty snorted.

"Bill said that I'm like the kid he always wanted to have with Mabel, and I know that he wouldn't try to leave me behind again."

Mabel's son felt that strange feeling in his gut. The same one he had felt as he watched the interaction between the demon and his smaller self before. He didn't know what it was, but the little boy did not like it at all. It made him feel bad.

"He does?" The dirty-blond asked, his voice coming out slightly squeaky.

"Yup!" The other boy grinned. "When he's not busy moping in sadness, he's a really great dad."

"I can't picture him moping around in sadness." He said, trying to change the subject.

"That's because it's one of those weird adult things where he tries to hide it by doing other things like thinking he wants revenge on people."

"Hmph." Monty replied, getting down from his spot on the counter.

The other boy followed suit, sliding down the ladder. As soon as he was off of it, Monty imagined that it was no longer there. Again, this brought a strange look across the imaginary boy's face. Wiping the crumbs off of his shirt, he said;

"You shouldn't be able to do that."

"Why not?"

"Bill said that your imagination should have a sort of block in it. Unless you're in trouble, it should be tamed for the modt part."

"Why?"

"He doesn't want you to hurt yourself."

"How would I do that?" Monty snorted, annoyed that the demon had done this without telling him.

The other boy grew a bit uncomfortable at this. He didn't want to lie to him, but at the same time, the truth was a bit of a touchy subject. He didn't really want to bring it up with his new friend, it would be weird for the both of them to talk about it. But the truth was always a good thing! Now wasn't it?

"What if you were say, having a nightmare, and in your sleep you accidentally imagined something that you were afraid of? Like G-"

He hesitated here, not sure if he should speak the albino's name. Monty gave a nod, as understanding washed over him. The demon had taken a peek in to his mind to get an idea on what Gideon had done to him. But he didn't see all of it. Standing there in that closet was humiliating, it was disgusting in on of itself. But having to act like his uncle was far worse than anything he had endured waiting in that suffocating closet.

Monty could understand why the demon would do that, and was grateful even that he had not awoken to find an imaginary version of his tormentor there to greet him. It actually sort of scared at him. The little boy had never realized that he could use his imagination to fo bad things as well. All those time he had imagined bad things happening to his uncle and Gideon... What would he do if he had brought those to life?

The little boy shivered. He really didn't like the idea of that. He'd much rather have his imagination slightly blocked again. After all, it wasn't like he couldn't use it if he was in trouble, or about to be hurt. The idea seemed reasonable enough after all.

"We'll get him to block it again once he comes back." Monty decided.

"Why wait?" The other boy asked. "We can always go find him ourselves."

"How would we do that? He's not here right now."

:He has to be around somewhere! This isn't the only part of his mind you know!"

"Really? Where else is there?"

"This is only a small part of his mind silly! The rest is elsewhere!"

"Elsewhere?"

"Nowhere, and everywhere!"

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"Who said it had to? Now imagine the door to the rest of his mind so we can find him!"

Monty willed a door leading to some sort of indescribable place to appear. And sure enough, it appeared. It was yellow in colour, and just the perfect height for the both of them to fit through. Monty cautiously followed the other boy, having no idea what he was stepping in to.

They were met with a world that was completely made of black and white, like some sort of old movie. They were trapped inside of a hedge maze, the large plants towering far above their heads. The sky was covered in a thick, grey mist. Voices echoed through the air, many of them having a very unearthly quality to them. Mabel's son gave a shiver at this.

"BIIIIIIILLLLLLLLL!" He called through the expanse.

Mabel's son chimed in as they wandered through the maze, but they were met with no reply after every twist and turn. They eventually stopped, both giving exasperate sighs as they seemed to grow no closer to the man they were looking for. One section of hedge looked like the rest of it! Grey, very thorny, and too tightly-knit for someone to push their way through. But, they eventually came to a stone bench, which seemed to be a landmark of sorts.

Until they passed it again, and another one, and another one. But when Monty imagined a ball of wool and tracked their path through the maze, they did not stumble across the same trail. But the same bench was still there in place! Unless, there were mote than one benches in place, and they were devised to trick someone to think that they were going in circled, while in actuality they were not?

It was beyond frustrating as they never seemed to get anywhere in their ventures. It just wasted time, there was no use at all in wandering around so fruitlessly! This was why they had both given up, their tiny legs too tired to travel any farther after such a long search. The duo flopped down on the bench (Or was it another bench?) And gave their sighs of disgust and surrender.

"Why does he have to have such a big head?" Monty wondered.

"It's the same size as anyone's." He shrugged. "He just keeps everything in his head really protected."

"What would he need to protect?"

"Bill's the Master of the Mind, he doesn't want people to be able to go through his mind like what he does with other people."

"He can really do that?"

"Yup. He's in charge of everything related to the mind. Plus he has to do normal demon stuff like making deals. But those kinds of demons are more common. It's a big job, but he's had millenniums of practice."

"That's a lot of time." Monty said with big eyes. "And what are normal demons like?"

The blond wrinkled his nose slightly at this.

"They're mainly just regular people who got powers."

Monty did not reply for a moment, dwelling on the idea of having powers of his own. Thinking of all the things he could do. It would be like having his imagination to use at any time he wanted. Thinking back to all of the things Bill could do, especially with all those sheep...

He could force people he wanted. He could make it so that no one ever hurt his mother again. Especially Gideon. And what better way to do it than by having his own powers? He could make the man go through everything that he had faced. Truly teach that monster a lesson once and for all. He was not his uncle Dipper, and he never would be that man who had been built up to be so great.

If he was so amazing, how come he didn't come rescue them like Gideon said he would inevitably try to do? If he was so great, how come he had left just as they came to visit? If he truly cared about his mother like she said she still did for him, why was it that he had never met the man, that his mother had never invited him over or visited sooner? There was something weird about his uncle, it seemed quite clear to him.

"How did they get powers?" The little boy inquired.

He shuddered, and looked a little ill at the thought.

"You have to do a lot of bad things, and prove that you're evil enough. You can also have another demon give some of their powers to you, but that never happens."

Well that was certainly out of the question. And Monty seriously doubted that he could very well stroll up to the only demon he knew and ask him for some of his powers. There was a difference between borrowing a book and gaining supernatural abilities.

Couldn't he make a deal though? Ask to have powers of his own, and then he'd do something in return? After all, how bad could that end up being? He could haggle on what to give, help decide on what was reasonable and what was not. Monty didn't exactly know what a soul was or did, but he had no plans on giving that in return for something.

Suddenly, Monty realized what he was saying. He wanted to find a way to become a demon! That was bad! They did bad things! They hurt people and were evil! Not to be trusted! Bill had even shamelessly admitted to having killed people before, without even caring that he had! The demon probably enjoyed every minute of it!

He couldn't belive that he would even debate the idea of finding a way to do so. Even if it was for his mother. And to see the look on the albino's face as he finally and slowly took his revenge on someone he wished bad things to happen to merely a week ago.

Without realizing it, a shadow had crossed the boy's face, which was followed by a frown and then a slightly diabolical grin. The other boy was slightly unnerved by this and the silence, and finally called his name to snap him out of whatever it was that he was thinking.

"M-Monty?"

"Yes?" The other boy asked, frowning slightly and shaking his head.

"You look like Bill when he's planning something."

"What?! No I don't!" Mabel's son denied. "I don't look like anyone! I'm my own person!"

Surprised by his new friend's outburst, he quickly apologized;

"Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's ok." He sighed. "I just hate being compared to other people. Especially my uncle!"

They stood there in a slightly awkward silence for a moment, neither having any idea on how to start speaking once again. Finally, Monty said;

"So what does he keep protected from people in his mind?"

The blond brightened at this, and said;

"All sorts of things! Every single one of his memories, his own dreams, nightmares, hopes, emotions, fears. Anyone could find them and use them against him! He wouldn't want you to know that his insanity is more of an act than anything to hide his feelings! Or that he sings in the shower!"

"I can't really see him being afraid of anything." The boy mused.

"Oh! Bill's afraid of a ton of things! Cute animals, synthesised music, the colour orange, Mabel when she's angry, the Time-Baby, make-overs baby mice, losing M-"

The boy suddenly found a hand covering his mouth. But one lick later and Bill pulled it away, a faint look of disgust on his features. The demon was doing his absolute best to hide how nervous he was, but the murderous expression on Dipper's face kept returning to his eyes. Wiping his hand on the boy's shoulder, he cleared his throat and stated;

"And that is why there are several barricades up keeping people from discovering these things."

"You're really afraid of baby mice?"

"They're just so... Adorable!" He gagged.

"Dad doesn't understand cuteness." He sighed.

"D-don't call me t-that!" He tersely snapped, betraying his supposedly calm façade.

"He also happens to be afraid of parenthood." The little boy grinned, nudging him in the ribs.

"I am not!" Bill pouted, crossing his arms. "I'm afraid of being a bad parent. You have a biased view because you're me."

"That's just a normal instinct." Monty said, drawing the attention back to himself.

The demon now turned back to Mabel's son, and he felt himself grow slightly uncomfortable once again. He had really given Monty his space, not wanting to push the boy even farther away from himself. But at the same time, he could not help but think that this wasn't quite the right approach. Which seemed a bit ridiculous, considering that he usually picked an idea and stuck to it.

Here, his plans kept changing over and over again as something new and unexpected turned up. He had taken the time to decide that revenge on Mabel was not something he wanted. He was angry at her for the longest time, but she was still his in the end.

Monty was a different story. He did not really know what to think of the kid because he barely knew him at all. The most that came to his mind when he thought about the boy was what he had learned through his flashbacks, and his quiet desire to prove that he was not Dipper Pines. Whatever Gideon did to place the idea in his head must have been very traumatizing and horrific if it always seemed to haunt his subconscious.

Keeping these things in mind, the older man asked;

"You guys were looking for me?"

"Yes." The little boy shyly nodded. "Unless you're too busy right now."

Thinking back to Dipper and Mabel, he was admittedly tied up at the moment. He really should have never left Mabel there all alone with her brother. Would his presence make the situation worse? Or would it be better to back her up instead? Not knowing what was going on between the twins was tugging at his nerves!

"There's some stuff I need to get back to yes, but I can spare a minute."

"Well..." He slowly began.

"Yes?" He impatiently inquired, tapping his foot.

"The block in my imagination isn't working right."

The blond's eyebrows rose in surprise. He had no idea that Monty had known. But looking at his miniature self, it was pretty easy to guess who had informed him of said block. At least he hadn't imagined Gideon to life, that would be a whole other level of problems to contend with. His personified child-like innocence wasn't the greatest at keeping secrets. The little boy slipped up in telling that. Along with his greatest fears, inner workings, and other things that were supposed to be secret for a reason.

Bill tapped Monty on the head, making a joke about it sounding hollow to hide his rising fear. The block was fine, Monty had not been imagining things. The time with the book, and before that the mirror. When they had their Latin lesson crash and burn on them it had been Monty controlling the sheep, not him. Thinking back to the boy's movements, he realized he had mimicked the actions perfectly. The supposed block was not working because Monty already had powers of his own. Those belonging to that of a demon...

Pieces began to click in to place, and Bill had to remind himself that it was not possible. The kid's father was a demon! So what?! There were plenty of demons out there! The ordinary kind at least... As if to make the situation worse, he could now hear Mabel calling, or rather sobbing his name.

"It's fixable!" He quickly reassured.

"But-" The little boy tried to say.

The demon ignored his protest in favour of returning to the Mystery Shack. He had to save Mabel from the fiery temper of her brother.


	12. Madness

**A warning, the flashback in this chapter is seriously disturbing and contains semi-graphic child abuse. I originally intended for things to be more drawn out and painful, but I realized that there was something seriously wrong with me wanting to write that. And that would qualify this story for a nice, strong, M rating. God no it's not explicit, I have no idea how to write physical romance, but you can't day that you weren't forwarned par moi. So, you may want to skip it if you don't have the strongest stomach.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><strong>July 30th, one month prior<strong>

Gideon Gleeful was not a very patient man. Even to say this about his personal makeup would be a very large understatement of his tolerance for things like this. And yet, waiting was one of the things he had been doing for almost all of his life in some sort of twisted form of irony.

During his lil' Gideon days, he had to wait until he could finally grow out of the role. This never happened, as he was exposed as a fraud to the town, and what little time left he had to maybe live a bit of a normal childhood was snatched away from him by Dipper Pines. During his prison years, he waited on nearly everything. Mealtimes, shower times, clean uniforms to wear. He waited for a brilliant strike of luck to suddenly come his way, to help him escape prison.

He waited for the day that Mabel would truly realize that they were meant for each other. That the influence of her brother was corrupting her thoughts. The repulsive man had always gotten in the way of everything. No matter what he did, he could not persuade his peach dumpling that it was otherwise. Yet she had never come for him, Gideon had waited all those years for her to come.

The albino stayed in the confines of the prison walls until the day nearly eight years ago when he was released from prison. So naturally Gideon was anything but patient once he had been freed. It did not take the man very long to find his queen. But his patience with getting her to see things his way quickly faded. He acted and took what rightfully belonged to him.

But once he let Mabel go, she took her brainwashed self straight to the police. But Mabel was too ashamed and afraid to tell her brother what he had done. But at least it was a start in making his sugar pie see things for what they really were. If Dipper knew what he had done, he most likely would have been dead before the first trial. In the end he was still incarcerated before he could even blink.

And so the waiting game began all over again. But Gideon was prepared with his plans this time around. He secretly kept the notes under his mattress, and came up with several different ways to extract his revenge on Dipper. Finally making Mabel his queen and having her rule by his side was equally important. He had managed to clear the young woman's head a little with what he had done to her in the alley of that fateful night, but nothing more than that. But it was clear to the former child-star that he would have to claim Mabel as his once more.

The gift came to him one day. As the albino reflected on one of his happier memories; Mabel of course. It was the chance encounter in the alley. She was running, from what and why, Gideon did not really know or care. All he could focus on was the fact that he now had the brunette right where he wanted her. In his arms.

She had struggled and screamed at first, it was a natural reaction he supposed. But he was bigger than her, stronger. Those years in prison had actually done something for him! Her sobs had gently subsided to the occasional sniffle or gasp in pain.

Those sensations, and having such control over another person... It was not something he had felt since his amulet had been broken. Just that sensation of raw power was awe-inspiring. That was when Gideon discovered his gift from the forces above.

Control. It was only small things at first. He could force someone to perhaps drop something, create a small muscle spasm. But with practice, more power came to him. Gideon could make the guards of the prison forget things, accidentally give him access to certain resources and benefits. Then came full control. He could now alter the will of those who possessed weaker minds than his own.

Using his new powers, he escaped the prison. He enslaved the people of Gravity Falls, and the minds of those who stepped within the boundaries of the town. Then he moved on to the other isolated mountain towns. He had a network of places for his operation. And with more use, his powers only became stronger. Slowly, he was taking over more and more of Oregon, even if no one was aware of it.

But by far, Gravity Falls was the crown jewel of it all. Here, the construction of his new Gideon Land commenced. His own children would take over his long-forgotten role as child stars. As for the little runt his queen currently held on to, he had various plans for the child- Rather spawn of evil. He had no idea who would dare touch his sweet pea in such a way, so there was no way to kill the fool who did.

Instead he would have to settle for the boy who just seemed to be the product of so many of his own failures. In his existence, that being that Mabel had left him thanks to her meddlesome brother, and beyond a few distinguishing features he looked like the bane of his existence. Dipper Pines, his scapegoat for everything that had ever gone wrong to him.

And because of this, he didn't see what would be wrong with making Dipper Pines the scapegoat belonging to the rest of the world as well. Starting with the people of Gravity Falls. He wanted to create a strong hatred towards Dipper, so when he finally showed up to stop his plans, the town's people would be ready to do most of the dirty work for him.

Gideon did not have Dipper now for them to project their hatred on, but he did have something just as good. Once he had dyed his white-blond hair the same hideous brown as Dipper's, and given the mud-coloured contacts to match, he was a near replica of Dipper. His cheeks were a bit more chubby, and he had a few freckles dotting them in places, but any fat the boy had soon evaporated, and stage makeup could hide the freckles.

The first few trials had gone perfectly. They all saw the little boy as Dipper Pines. He barely had to manipulate their wills and muscles, forcing the boy to do all sorts of derogatory things, calling his names and hissing at him. The hatred grew stronger as they for some reason felt that he was the opitamy of all their problems.

The best part was, he got a front row seat, watching in delight as the people of Gravity Falls wreaked their vengeance on "Dipper." He could force the boy to act more and more like his hated nemesis as well, which made it all the more satisfying to see him be crushed. Now, it looked like it was time for another one of their "shows."

"BOY, Get in here!" Gideon screeched at the top of his lungs.

Monty, who was quietly waiting behind the man, made his presence on the backstage known once more. He was ragged-looking, skinny and scuffed. There were a few more nasty bruises staining his arms a purplish-blue, with faint hints of green along the outside of the shape. His hair was starting to look very ratty and teased with the unnatural colour it was dyed.

But he wasn't supposed to try to comb or fix his hair because it would stop him from looking like Dipper, and only good children were allowed to keep clean and eat proper food. He had learned that much from the crowds he had faced every week during the past three times he had to look like Dipper and act like him. Another week had come to pass, and now he would have to step out on the stage and wait for humiliation.

Gideon handed the boy his costume. Grey shorts, an orange t-shirt, a blue truckers vest, along with a blue and white ball cap with a pine tree on the front. Abandoning all modesty, Mabel's son quickly put the overly large clothing on. Even if the shorts kept slipping and the shirt reached past his waist, while the hat always got in the way of his vision, Monty was glad he would at least able to change back in to his regular clothes after. Otherwise they would be even more messy.

"You're on in one minute." His tormentor barked.

He watched as the man retreated from behind the stage, and gave the first few announcements to the eagerly chatting crowd. Then, he would sit down in his own reserved spot in the front row, watching the spectacle with everyone else.

Monty felt his heart beat speed up, and the first few twitching spasms in his muscles began. His arms and legs quickly took a life of their own and he was forced to walk out on to the bright stage, being stared down at by the crowd. He was met with boos and hisses, there were a few people who thew things at him as well. Apples, tomatoes, and little doll replicas of Gideon.

Mabel's son wanted to glare at the vendor who was selling these things to people in the tent, but could not. The part that scared him the most now came. There was a sudden tightening in his throat, it started to feel funny. Because when he opened his mouth to speak the rehearsed lines, it was not in his own voice, it was in someone else's.

"Hi there." The boy greeted, his voice cracking. "My name is Dipper Pines! And I'm a complete meddling idiot! Watch as I show how stupid and bothersome I happen to be!"

The crowd stopped throwing things now, and everyone cheered as they waited for their entertainment to begin. There were a few things set up on the stage, laying out on a table at the front of it. A large pie-plate filled with shaving cream, a large vat that he could barely lift when full. It was filled to the brim with a mixture of slime that had been made with cornstarch, water, and a sickening brown die. There was also a kitchen pot filled with boiling water, steam curled out of it. This was followed by a kiddy pool (Placed to the side of the table.) filled with slowly melting ice cubes and an electric fly swatter.

Monty shivered. He knew what this act entailed. But there was no fighting against the unstoppable force that took over his body and followed Gideon's every command. Mabel's son watched in a detached way, almost like he was part of the audience that was being forced to watch and enjoy the show as well. He walked over to the pie plate filled with shaving cream first.

"I'm so barbaric that I eat my food face-first!" He declared in Dipper's voice.

The ache in his throat grew stronger, but he still picked up the plate and smashed it in to his face, and all across the front of his shirt. The audience roared in laughter at this, like it was one of the funniest things that they had ever seen. The little boy tried to ignore the laughter and the people pointing at him. He had learned long ago not to cry, and if he did, the pain would only grow worse.

"Whoops! I'm all covered in food! Boy am I a slob!"

Now, he marched over to the disgusting tub of brown goo. With trembling arms, he just barely hoisted the stuff over his head, and dumped it on himself. The slime was slippery and icy, he could feel it crawling al along his body. But Monty did not try to dwell on the sensation as he still had more acts to go through.

"That wasn't water! I sure am an imbecile!"

Walking over to the pot of boiling water, the little boy declared;

"Here we are! Water!"

In his eyes, this act as the least of many evils, as he was given a temporary shower, and a small chance to drink. He lifted the pot with a grunt of effort, and then poured the steaming hot water all over himself. A lot of the dirt was washed away, and he even caught a mouthful of the water. The temperature was not all that bad, not that Monty would tell his to Gideon or the crowd. Instead, he screamed at the top of his aching lungs;

"That's really hot! It burns!"

Monty then leaped in to the kiddie pool filled with ice water. He shivered as he was soaked to the bone.

"T-that's b-b-better!" He shuddered.

Now came the worst part that would close the act. Picking up the electric fly swatter, he switched it to on, and watched as the metal grill across is sparked several times. Even if his hand was not forced, the boy doubted that he would not follow through with the finishing act. Before letting it fall in to the water, Monty reminded himself that it did not have enough power to kill him, only cause serve discomfort. Because of that, he still had to recite the closing line.

"I WANT MY MOTHER!"

The audience laughed and cheered, and Gideon gave a sickening smile, and relinquished the hold he had on the little boy. The man watched the trembling boy pull himself out of the pool and collapse on the ground. Little did anyone know, or care, that his closing statement was more than just that. It was the truth.

* * *

><p>Both stared at him in surprise for a moment. The man tugged on Mabel's locks with the hairbrush, indicating for her to not move or say anything as he spoke. Then, the blond effortlessly transitioned in to his unhinged demon façade without a care in the world. A maniac intensity took over his eyes. And a twisted, nearly inhuman grin that showed all to many teeth curved across his face.<p>

Then he eagerly got to his feet, ready to put on a good show and defend Mabel from her brother if necessary. He was afraid for Mabel, and what the man might do without thinking to her, but he was also ready to have a little bit of fun playing with her brother as well.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat Shooting Star, but your brother looks like he wants to remind me what being banished forever means. Again."

Dipper indeed did want to bring that up with the demon, but in retrospect is seemed fairly pointless. No matter how many rituals you performed on Bill, he would always be back by the following Tuesday, ready to cause pain and misery wherever he went. There was simply no winning with the demon.

"It would be for the best if you could at least _pretend_ that you could be banished forever."

Bill snorted at this.

"Yeah, I can _clearly_ see how it's for the best."

Suddenly, he was floating over the man's head, and had poked him a few times. Dipper tried to push him away, but to no avail.

"Let's see." The demon listed on his fingers. "You've got no family left, you have early grey hairs from all of your stress, live alone in a godforsaken tourist trap in the woods... You're practically Stanford at this point!"

"I'm not like Stan!" He insisted.

"Hmmm... I suppose you're right." Bill mused. The demon then picked up Dipper's hat, and turned it in to a fez with a pine tree design on the front. "But now you are!"

Dipper pulled of the fez hat and threw it at the demon, but it just passed through Bill.

"Well someone can't take a joke today!" He declared.

"You ruined my life!" The ex Mystery Twin accused.

"But I could fix it as well." The demon offered, putting an arm around his shoulders. "I could make all the pain go away if you just made a deal with me. A simple promise, an agreement, a pact."

Dipper pushed away his arm and glared at the demon.

"If by making the pain go away you mean stabbing me in the ribs with that knife you're holding behind your back."

Bill put the knife back to wherever he had taken it from, and gave a shrug. Killing him would have ended his suffering for a decent amount of time. But noooo! He tried to do his best to seem innocent as possible, which was not very much. Still, he clutched where his human heart should have been, and let very fake tears well up.

"Why Pine Tree! I'm offended that you would ever accuse me of making an unfair deal with a twist! I would never dream of doing such a thing!" He lied. "Haha! Get it?! _Dream?!_ You see it's funny because I'm a dr-"

Dipper was not in the mood for Bill's dream-demon puns. No one was ever in the mood to listen to his terrible plays on words. Funny how it was the same technique he employed when making supposedly unfair deals with people. English was full of double meanings, and he just so happened to love it.

"I get it." He snarled.

"Man have you got your panties in a knot today!"

Dipper only growled in response. Seeing how he was not going to get much more of a reaction out of him than this, the demon decided it was in his best interests to leave. Bill pulled off his top hat, and rummaged through it for a moment, he pulled out a watch (He had "borrowed" it from a dead guy who's grave he may have dug up accidentally on purpose.) and glanced at it.

"Well, time's a tickin' Pine Tree."

The ex Mystery Twin glared as he made yet another terrible joke.

"I'll admit that was not one of my finer moments." The demon admitted. "Anywho, I'll just let you and your sister enjoy your little reunion. While you still can!"

With that threat turned promise left lingering ominously in the air, Bill vanished. Whether had had actually left or turned invisible was debatable. Either option was plausible, and half the time there was no telling with the demon. The other half of the time he was too busy causing trouble for any assessment to possibly be made.

Once he was gone, Mabel eagerly got up from her spot and tackled her brother in an eager hug. But Dipper did not return his sister's embrace.

What was he doing here?" Dipper inquired.

Mabel's heart sunk as she heard the question. They were going to end up fighting again. They always ended up fighting whenever this was the subject. She was so tired of arguing with her brother, she had hoped that after nearly eight years apart he would not want to fight anymore. She wanted her twin brother back.

She had hoped that not trying to push seeing him again would help. She had forgiven him for making sickening accusations about her to be born son, and her own character, even though he had never taken the time to listen. It had taken her months to finally stop feelings so ashamed and afraid, all alone with no one to talk to. But before she could ready herself to tell her brother what he had missed, she discovered the news. And it was a problem with a capital P.

Dipper had just jumped to conclusions in assuming who Monty's father was, and because of that he would never listen to a word she said and finally get the whole story. The brunette was not actually sure if he knew who his father really was. The man never refered to him as anything more than a monster. As far as she was concerned that applied to both Gideon and Bill. Mabel had hoped that now he would able to listen, and realize that just because his father was a monster, it didn't make him one as well.

But it seemed that things were not fated to be seen this way, and as soon as she would ask to explain what had happened to her he would simply explode and refuse to listen at all. Things were just going to repeat themselves. Over and over and over...

"What was he doing here?" The man growled.

"I was sick and he helped me."

"And?" He asked, knowing that there was much more to this.

"He helped us get away from Gideon."

"Us?"

"Yes Dipper, us." Mabel said, sensing the argument starting. "Monty, and I."

"Where is he?"

"With Bill."

"Why?"

"He promised that he would keep Gideon away from him."

Dipper rose an eyebrow at this, having a good idea of where this was all going.

"A promise. As in, he made a deal with you?"

"Yes Dipper. In a time of desperation where my son would have been dead if Gideon got a hold on us again, I made a deal with Bill in order to keep what little remained of our- sorry my, family safe. And in order to do so, I told him I would do anything in return."

Like she had expected, the man started to yell at her once her words finally sunk in.

"Anything?! Are you absolutely insane?!"

"I just told you that we were desperate." She weakly reminded.

"So you should have let Gideon take the kid and run off yourself!"

The woman bristled at the very thought of having to leave her son alone with that monster. And that Dipper thought she would ever be willing to do so.

"He's my son Dipper." Mabel snarled through gritted teeth.

"He's a monster in the making Mabel! You're too blinded with love to see anything past that! It's Bill all over again!"

"It isn't like that Dipper! Monty is my son, he wasn't just born evil!"

"Considering his father, I would tell you that's debatable!"

Mabel gave a sob of frustration. This was just so useless trying to explain to her brother! He wouldn't listen to her at all, he was just so stubbornly convinced that he would not even take the chance to find out if it was right or not. She just wanted her brother back! But he would never listen...

"Don't you get it Mabel?!" He asked, grabbing her shoulders. "He's brainwashed you again, he does one good thing for you and you suddenly think he's turning around again!"

Mabel pulled herself away from the man.

"Bill isn't Dipper! And at least he's telling the truth about it instead of giving empty promisies! Unlike some people I know! Even Gideon keeps his word! What does that make you then?!"

Before she could react, the man was tightly gripping her shoulders once more. Mabel tried to squirm away from him, but this time he refused to let go. The woman gasped and felt more tears start to fall as she remembered what had happened the last time Gideon held her in a position like this. She wondered if he was going to slap her as well. The brunette squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered, hoping that if she didn't seem defiant, he wouldn't go through with it.

_Smack!_

There was a sudden, sickening crack. Dipper's eyes widened in surprise, his grip faltered on his sister. Mabel pulled herself away from the man with another sob and curled in a ball on the floor as her cries grew even louder. He clutched the side of his face in shock, only now realizing that it was in pain. The ex Mystery Twin spat out a tooth. But before Dipper could act any farther his attacker resumed his stance once more. Furious, Bill grabbed the man by the throat and pushed him up against the wall. His feet helplessly kicked in the air as he was pinned up against the wall, with the blaze of fury crushing his throat.

"Don't hold your breath Pine Tree!" The demon joked. "Haha! You see it's funny because I'm about to asphyxiate you!"

"Do then!" Dipper choked.

The hold on his throat grew tighter for a moment, and the man was certain this was how he would meet his end. The crushing weight on his lungs grew more forced to the point where he thought that his chest was going to explode. He was suddenly released, and dropped to the floor. He collapsed on the ground, massaging his throat in the spots where his fingers had crushed him.

"You don't deserve to die." The blond growled. "Not after what you did to Mabel."

"As if you're any better!" He spat.

The demon fixed him with a murderous stare.

"They say to never kick a man while he's down. But you're not a man. You're a spinless-"

The man put his heel on the man's tooth, which he had been reaching for. He smashed it with his foot, right before the other man's eyes.

"Little!"

Now Dipper received a very hard kick to the shins. He winced as pain exploded before his eyes.

"Worm!"

He was then spat at.

"Your sister has just been held prisoner with a man who's been obsessed with her since you were kids, and, newsflash, now has demon powers! And yet here you are about to hurt the very same person you considered closest to, after a month of her being smacked around, and tormented, and raped during that time! She's having flashbacks no thanks to you! At least I've never caused her physical harm before!"

Dipper hung his head in shame, knowing that the demon was fully right.

"I-I-"

"Save it Pine Tree. You've already done enough."

Bill took several deep breaths, reminding himself not to kill Dipper because he currently had bigger fish to fry. He changed from being an angry red to orange, and finally his usual candy-couloured yellow. Even if it was still a little orange in places.

Dipper watched as the man went over to his sister, and quietly spoke with Mabel and held her in a hug until she was able to speak, and hesitantly nod something as he asked a question. The ex Mystery Twin felt guilt wash over him as he heard the brunette quietly stutter;

"I d-don't w-want to s-stay with him."

The blond cast an angry look in his direction before replying;

"I don't blame you. You can stay with me, your kid's been clamouring to see you again as well."

"Really?"

"Of course he is! You're his mother!"

"No, I meant you'd let m-me stay?"

"So long as you don't redecorate the dreamscape again. I still haven't gotten the kittens that explode in to glitter and those perfect boys that spontaneously burst in to song for no reason out of some parts. I'm the laughing stock of dream-demons everywhere!"

Mabel gave a tiny laugh at this, knowing full well that Bill was the only dream-demon out there. Having glitter kittens and Middle School Musical characters running around in the dreamscape was more of an ego problem for him than anything. Why was it that no one but her knew the trick to remove glitter from things anyways?

"No redecorating this time." She nodded.

"And that includes me."

Picturing Bill in hot pink instead of yellow and wearing a tiara, Mabel did her best to not want to completely change his wardrobe. But he really did need to change things up every now and then.

"I make no promises." She lightly joked through narrowed eyes.

"That's the best I could hope for."

Mabel gave another sniffle and was glad that she was at least feeling less weepy. At least she was until she turned back to face her brother, who also remained laying on the floor. A few more tears fell from her eyes, and the woman suddenly found herself crying all over again. She had been certain that Dipper was going to hurt her. She knew that they were going to end up fighting once more, but not to that extent. If Bill had not shown up, maybe he would have.

The demon in question gave the brunette another hug, and then helped Mabel to her feet. Dipper could only watch sadly as the woman he had once known as his sister left with the blond. Had it really come to this point? Where they had managed to become so torn apart from each other?

He was her brother, he was supposed to protect Mabel from the things that had hurt her! Yet, she walked off with the demon who was so much worse. Bill was worse than him. Right? He buried shaking hands in to his face. What had he done?!


	13. Metaphors

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>June 6th, Eight Years Prior<strong>_

It was one of Gravity Falls' infamous sweltering, hot, summer days outside. Everyone moved around sluggishly, too tired and frazzled to do much other than sleep through the heat. There was no breeze to move the humid air, no clouds to blot out the sun. Because of the ridiculous temperatures, there was nothing more to do other than relax. Mabel and Waddles were doing exactly that. The brunette was dressed in a yellow bikini, working on a tan, while Waddles slept in the cool shade of her chair.

Other than the occasional sip from her Pitt Cola, the young woman remained relatively still and relaxed. Or at least she was until a cloud got in her way. Not, not a real cloud, there were none of those in the sky today, this was a metaphorical cloud. This metaphorical cloud's name was Bill Cipher, dream-demon extraordinaire and bane of several existences. Said demon pulled himself on to the roof of the Mystery Shack, practically crawling as he floated over to Mabel.

"I've... Come to... Kidnap... Whew, give me a moment... I've come to..."

Bill collapsed on the ground, much too tired in the heat to finish the sentence.

"Bill, it's the hottest day of the summer." Mabel pointed out in annoyance. "Can you just skip to the part where you try to steal the journal from Dipper instead of using me as a hostage?"

"No... Must... Maintain... God it's hot out here! Tradition!"

"Well I'm not leaving until I get a tan." Looking at him, she added; "You could use a little sun as well."

"It's called a moon tan." He stubbornly replied. "Humans... And their... Skin... Cancer..."

"No, it's called being a ghost." The brunette corrected. "And at least take off a layer of clothing, your bow tie or something!"

The demon stared at her like he was absolutely scandalized at the idea. Mabel just rolled her eyes.

"Come on! You must be baking in there!"

Pulling at the collar of his jacket, he realized that it was indeed sweltering. After a moment of stubbornness, he undid his tie and pulled off the yellow jacket, carefully folding them. Underneath he had on a long-sleeved shirt that was white, and a yellow vest that also bore the little brick patterns. But he found himself no less warmer. He didn't really want to take off anything more. At least, not while Mabel was there to see him. It was embarrassing!

"It's alright." The brunette said, guessing what he was thinking. "I'm not going to laugh or anything."

He wanted to shake his head in denial for a moment, but Mabel continued to softly coax with him and remind the demon how hot it was outside. Eventually, he relented. Although he was still blushing heavily, he took off his vest with equal care and folded it, and then finally pulled off his shirt. Underneath the suit, his chest and ribs looked rather thin, but there was not much he could really do about it.

So much of his energy was now devoted to keeping a constant temperature and working other bodily functions that he had trouble putting on weight physically. It didn't make him any less strong, he just did not look like it, and there was nothing he could do to help the problem.

"There! Was that so bad?"

"Yes." He mumbled in embarassment.

"Well then you obviously don't remember who my brother is. Now stop being awkward and enjoy the weather while you can!"

Still surprised to be receiving a gesture of kindness from the young woman, he laid down on the chair next to her with a little bit of awkwardness. The brunette gave him a goofy smile and tossed him a Pitt Cola from the icebucket under her chair.

He caught it, and looked down at the freezing human pop with amusement. It had been a few years since he had last taken over the kid's body and enjoyed tormenting him. The demon opened it and took a sip. It was a refreshing change to the sweltering heat. The blond soon felt his eyes grow heavy in the afternoon sun, and along with Mabel he started to drift off...

But Bill suddenly awoke as he realized what he was doing. He was still sleeping with the enemy! Well, not in that sense, but he was still letting his target lull him in to a false sense of security! Her casual reaction to his now regular kidnapping was causing him to not take things seriously!

The demon jumped to his feet and stalked over to Mabel. He could not belive that he had fallen for her schemes so easily! Normally it would have never taken a week to sucessfully kidnap someone! Of all the treachory! Bill doubted that her brother had even been aware if the fact that seven times this week, she had been taken hostage albiet for a short amount of time as Mabel always found a way to escape.

He placed his hands beneath her lower back and shoulders, and hoisted the girl over one of his shoulders. Right away, Mabel woke up and began to kick and scream as he decided to continue with yet another attempt at using her to get the journals.

"Let go of me your jerk! I was even nice to you today! We shared a soda!"

"Soda or no soda, you're still going to be taken hostage by the end of the day!" The blond laughed.

Mabel dug her toes in to the man's back, hopping to pry herself away from him. But his grip only became tighter, and he pressed a hand against her lower back to prevent the brunette from falling off of his shoulder.

"I'll escape from you!... Again!" The brunette protested. "And get your hand away from my butt you weirdo!"

As soon as he realized that his hand was indeed to close for comfort, the blond pulled it away like he had been burned. Trying to hide the flush on his face, he said;

"Too bad so sad! Hasn't anyone ever told you to not let your guard down because you shared a soda with said demon?"

"Bill, no one has ever said that to anyone in human history."

"Oh... Well they probably should have!"

"Yeah, I guess so." Mabel agreed, having considerably calmed down by this point. "Can I at least dressed before you lock me in the cage of unoriginal planning again?"

"Seems reasonable." He shrugged, setting Mabel back on the roof of the Mystery Shack. "Although I have ta' say Shooting Star, ya' clean up well in yellow."

Bill suddenly found his arm being twisted behind his back, with Mabel viciously grinding the heel of her sandal in to his foot. Despite the fact that he could float (Even Bill forgot that at times.) she pushed him closer to the edge of the roof with all ot her female fury bent on making him regretting saying those very words.

"Say Grunkle." Mabel voiced in a dangerous tone.

"Don't you mean uncle?" The demon wondered.

He could not help but wince as his arm was twisted in to a more uncomfortable position. It did not help that it felt like Mabel was willing to break his arm and push him off of the roof in order to make him apologize for what was initially a teasting remark.

"Say it." She repeated.

"I was joking! I've never looked at you in that weird human way before! I don't do lust and infatuation!"

The pain only became worse at this admission.

"Say. It." Mabel snarled, wanting to emphasize how not ok it was to say things like that to people.

"Jeeze! Alright! Grunkle! I take it back, you don't look good in yellow! It's hideous! Just let go of me!"

Mabel finally let go of the man, who collapsed on to his back. With a sniff, the woman said;

"I'm going inside to get changed. You can wait here."

After that, she turned on her heel and went back inside the Mystery Shack. Waddles crawled out from his spot under the hair where Mabel was once sitting. The pig now came in to his feild of vision, curiously sniffing his forehead. The demon half-heartedly tried to push him out of the way, but felt too lazy to do so in the blazing heat.

Minutes seemed to tick by at a crawling pace as he remained sprawled out in the sun. His once sickly pale flesh turned a lighter tan in the sun. But Mabel did not show up. The demon knew that women were said to take a long time getting changed, but did it really take this long to figure out what to wear in the searing heat? She could just put on a skirt, and shirt, and be ready to be kidnapped!

The idea that she might have run away to avoid the outcome flicked through his thoughts for a moment, but he dismissed it. Mabel was a morally upstanding person and would not just skip out on what was becoming a routeen between the two of them. So where was she? Had the world ended without him realizing it? Was Stan forcing her to work in the gift shop? Just as he finally considered getting up and out of his spot, the cheerful brunette reappeared.

"Back!" She announced, now donned in a pink skirt and green sweater with a bottle of sunscreen on it.

"Finally! What took you so- AAAAARRRAAAHHH!"

Bill let out a suprised howl of pain as he leapt to his feet. All of his upper body and face, it felt like they were on fire! What had happened to him? Every time he moved or blinked in the slightest the mysterious pain returned. And Mabel was smiling at him through it!

"Well who would have thought that an "all-powerful" dream-demon could get sunburn?" Mabel giggled.

"It's not funny! How am I supposed to kidnap you and have your brother give the journals to me to ensure your safety when I can't move?!"

Mabel tossed him a bottle of aloe vera gel, and skipped back inside of the Mystery Shack. Through all of this new-found pain, the demon realized that he had been tricked by the woman again. Allowing Mabel to slide through his hands once more.

* * *

><p>Monty and the other little boy had been waiting in the maze after Bill left. They still didn't have the greatest idea on how to get out on their own, which was why they remained by the bench. But suddenly the blond let out a sharp gasp of pain, and he actually flickered to being translucent.<p>

"What happened?" Mabel's son inquired.

"Dad's mad." The little boy shuddered. "Really, really mad."

"At us?" Monty nervously asked.

"No. He's mad at- DON'T KILL HIM! STOP! YOU CAN'T DO THAT JUST YET!"

The little boy suddenly vanished from existence all together. Moments later, a little ways away, Bill reappeared. And he was not alone. His mother was cradled in his arms. The little boy watched with absolute terror as her eyes suddenly fluttered shut. With a yelp of surprise, he ran over to the man as he carefully laid her down on the ground.

Without even realizing it, he leapt at the blond and was suddenly clawing and biting at the man, all while screaming for him to leave his mother alone. The demon was naturally caught by surprise, which left him vulnerable for a moment. His own survival instincts kicked in and he gave a rather dangerous snarl, tearing the little boy off of him. He took Monty by the shoulders and fireman's carried Mabel's son, who was kicking and screaming and begging not to be hurt all the way to another section of the maze.

"Stop! Don't hurt me! I'll be a good boy! I'm sorry Daddy!"

The blond felt his blood run cold as he heard the pleading, especially as he heard himself call him Daddy. Internally, he chastised himself for acting too quickly and scaring Monty. Despite the stinging pain in his back and face, the man crouched so he was at eye-level with the boy.

"I'm not going to hurt you kiddo. Snap out of it."

"B-but-" Monty sniffled, hesitantly opening his eyes.

"Shhh. Sh- M- Your mom's sleeping." Bill explained in a whisper. "Don't wake her up."

"Y-you were going t-to-"

"Shhh!" He instructed once more. "You caught me by surprise, I wasn't going to hurt you, or Mabel."

"I thought you hurt her. She was crying. Who hurt her?"

The demon paled slightly, knowing that he really shouldn't tell him who it was.

"Kid, we should-"

"Who?" Mabel's son asked.

Eventually he relented. The man wanted his trust, and like with Mabel, being open was a part of it. He got to his feet, wincing at the pain in his back.

"Your uncle."

The little boy's eyes flashed dangerously as he heard the name he had grown to hate.

"Dipper..." He hissed with a surprising amount of venom.

"I stopped him though." The man supplied.

The demon was shocked by his next words.

"You should have killed him when you had the chance."

His eyes widened in surprise, and he took a small step away from him.

"Kiddo?"

From the way he was staring up in to his eyes, Bill realized that the boy wanted to see something inside of his mind. Cautiously, he let himself skim the surface of a few memories that were playing through the dirty-blond's mind.

_An image flashed before his eyes. It was Dipper and Monty standing next to each other in a mirror. No, that was not possible, they were both Monty. The words "before and after" seemed to echo through the space. The Monty before had a different hair style, and unlike what he had originally thought, he was not a dirty-blond. He had freckles, and slightly round facial features._

_The reflection of afterwards was much different. His hair had been dyed brown and was now growing out. Bits of his hair were spread out across the stained bathroom floor, looking odd and foreign. The boy had no visible injuries yet, but he was sickly-looking. Now he wore clothes that were much too big for him, replicas of what Dipper had always worn._

_ Mabel's son despondently stared at the reflection, wondering why Gideon would do this to him. Why anyone would do this to someone._

_"Dipper." A mocking voice cut in._

_Nervously, he turned around to face the albino, wondering why he was being addressed under his uncle's name instead of "boy" or "brat."_

_"You've got to rehearse your part."_

_"F-for what?" The boy nervously asked, wanting to step away from the man._

_"Why your part in the show of course! It's a play that **everyone **in Gravity Falls will absolutely love!"_

Startled, the demon pulled himself away from the horrific memories of the little boy. Judging from the fact that he had let him witness these memories, the man guessed that there was far worse things to come. This was only the tip of the iceberg, and it would take a lot more trust and empowerment before he got a glimpse of those memories.

In realizing that this was the start of something bad, the man felt his stomach grow queasy, and his temper flare all at the same time. Bill Cipher had been called many things over the span of existence; A monster, a murderer, heartless, derranged, unstable, uncurable, a liar, manipulator, and goodness knew what else.

But even he had the darkening depths to which he had never wandered; Blind arrogance, predjudice of masses, genocide, rape, child-abuse... One could even argue that there were humans out there who had been worse than him. And one of those men, was Gideon Gleeful.

Just the idea of hurting the kid got to him, it made the demon feel that weird human instinct he wasn't sure that he had ever posessed. The man knew how much Gideon hated Dipper, and what a state Monty went in to when compared to his uncle. If he saw seen as Dipper, a helpless version of Dipper at that, who had no way to defend himself against Gideon...

Defense... The boy had powers, his father was a demon, there was no denying that to himself. He was doing his best not to connect the threads and make the wrong assumptions. When Mabel felt up to it, he would ask the woman about it. Someone would have to teach Monty how to hone his powers. With his experiences, the boy wouldbecome completely uncontrollable without some sort of mentoring. So he would teach the boy all that he knew then, make sure that Gideon could never lay another hand on him. And once the time was right, take his revenge on him as well...

"Let's go take Mabel to bed." He finally said.

Monty nodded, allowing for Bill to brood over his thoughts. They quietly walked back to where the woman had carefully been laid down. Taking all the care in the world, the blond lifted her up bridial-style. Because the sleep she was under was enchanted she did not wake up. This left Monty a bit left out as he did not really help while carrying his mother.

The boy could not help but feel himself bristle as the image of him holding his mother like that danced beforehim. Bill was going to get married to her at one point in his life time. Evidently, he still wanted to be married to her. But what about his mother? Would the demon be the same as Gideon, and give her no choice?

His worries subsided temporarily for the moment as he suddenly realized that they were no longer trapped inside of the odd hedge maze with no colours at all. Now, they were standing in a hall just out side of a door. Even though he was holding on to the woman, Bill somehow managed to open the door.

Inside was what appeared to be a library. A huge library, that was a labyrinth within itself. Only this time it was formed out of the book shelves that towered above them and were stacked upon each other. Piles upon piles of books, an infinite amount were everywhere. All were unique, came in sizes varrying from match-box-sized to those as large as paving slabs. The boy stared around the room in awe, and the demon allowed him to do so, as it was a pretty impressive sight.

"Close your eyes." The man warned.

Monty did exactly that, and was glad he had been warned as the sickening feeling of teleporting washed over him. Once the feeling was gone, he opened his eyes. They were still in the library, but now in a different part of it. Off to one wall, there was a fireplace.

But the interesting thing about this closed in area was the furniture. There was a decent-sized table, that was made of books. The legs were stacks of books, while the top of it was like one of the larger volumes he had seen from before. There were piles that made up chairs as well, and what looked like a canopied bed made out of books that was off to the side.

"Where are we?" Mabel's son asked in amazement.

"It's everything that I know. It's like if you could see how much I know." He paused, giving a grin as a certain phrase came to mind. "I know lots of things."

"I wish I knew as much as you."

"Hey, live a few millenia and you pick up a thing or eighty-six trillion-trillion."

"That's not a number!"

"Yes it is." He corrected. "A trillion-trillion is too big to write down. It's a number with double a trillion place values."

"I don't like math." The boy said, making a face.

"Only crazy people like math!" The demon snorted. "There are too many boring equations. I'd much rather be buying the six hundred oranges than calculating how much they cost."

Monty followed the man as he carefully set his mother down on the bed, and tucked the duvet (Made to look like the pages of a tome.) under the covers. He then took a book-shaped pillow and fluffed it before putting it by her head. When Monty curiously felt the bed, he was suprised to find that it was soft as a regular bed, and only bore the shape of the giant books.

Now that his mother was safely in bed, both the man and child settled down on either side of Mabel. Instinctively, Bill reached out a hand to softly stroke the woman's hair, but he withdrew his hand as Monty fixed him with a warning glare. The little boy did not want him closer to her, that was for certain. Clearing his throat awkwardly, the blond decided to delve in to a topic that had been forgotten for the most part.

"Do ya' wanna' start up on your Latin again while we wait for her to wake up?"

"How long will that take?" He wondered, glancing at Mabel.

"Well, she was a bit upset, so I put her under for around an hour or so."

"And you know how to speak it?"

"Yup, it comes with the job requirements."

"Well then I want to as well." He decided.

"Excellent!" The man grinned.

They both got up and moved over to the table to work on what would really be their first technical lesson. The demon pulled off his top hat, and from there located several books, and the brain that he had stolen from the scholar back in Rome.

"You actually kept the brain?" Monty asked as he poked it.

"Well I couldn't just return it!"

Both shared a small laugh at this.

"Now, we're going to break down the language first. There are certain parts to Latin that can give you a better idea of how to figure out the meaning of something. A key phrase or meaning. A few would be; Demi..."

* * *

><p>Mabel awoke from her sleep as she heard two voices quietly speaking to each other. Fear flickered in her face before she recalled what had happened. She was engaged with no escape, but the man she was going to marry wanted her to be happy with him before the inevitable happened. As they talked she discovered that Dipper knew what she was condeming herself to, and felt that she didn't deserve the warning.<p>

Tears stung in her eyes at the thought. Would she have listened to his words, or gone ahead and accepted anyways? She had felt slightly pressured at the time, he had really been pushing the idea. He had been tense and almost a little intimidating at the time, like he was almost threatening her. But afterwards, he explained that Dipper had been getting on his case, insisting that she would hot be able to love him much longer. That he would just be another one of her failed romances.

Mabel was not sure if she wanted to settle down and get married yet. Maybe the emphasis on their marriage being forever would be enough for her to politely decline. If not for- No. Mabel shook her head. It wasn't Dipper's fault, he was just being a little bit protective. He would not deliberately try so hard to make the both of their lives miserable like that.

At least both Monty and her were now safe from Gideon, and as much as it pained her to say so, they were safe from Dipper as well.

"Now we'll move on to verbs next after we go over-" Bill froze in his words as he saw that Mabel was awake.

Knowing that there was no possible way he could get away with teaching her son things that he probably shouldn't have been, he prepared to do a little kissing up. The blond took a running leap at the bed and somersaulted so his head was then resting on her lap. Giving his most charming smile possible to the woman, he cheerfully began;

"Hey there beautiful-"

"Save it." Mabel interrupted, knowing the act all to well.

"Hmph!" The demon replied, getting out of her lap.

"Mother!" Mabel's son happily cried.

He jumped on to the bed as well, and shot the dempn a dirty look before hugging his mother and excitely greeting her. Mabel did so just as eagerly, finally able to feel that her son was no longer in danger. It had been so long since they had really seen each other! Monty quickly began to ramble on about something or the other, it was the most he had ever heard the boy say before in one sitting. The brunette listened, and nodded along as he relayed his past few adventures.

"-And now he's teaching me Latin!"

"Latin you say?" Mabel asked, raising an eyebrow. As she cast a look over at Bill, Mabel knew that this was what the demon was trying to sweet-talk her out of being mad. "It's better than animal dentistry I suppose. Isn't that right Bill?"

"That's debateable." He sheepishly muttered.

"I couldn't agree more." She nodded. "You can go finish up what you were working on sweetie."

Without even realizing that Mabel's aim was to talk with the man privately, Monty eagerly went to go finish off the remained of whatever he had been given. Bill put his charming smile back in place, figuring that Mabel was going to lecture him now.

"I can explain. Really I-"

"You don't have to."

"No, I realized that he had powers. His father's a demon!" He replied in a whisper.

Mabel tensed a moment, but nodded. He waited for her to elaborate a little on the subject, but she did not.

"I know. That's why I asked you to teach him stuff."

"But..." The demon trailed off.

Mabel gave him a devious grin.

"Because I knew that you would realize that, and teach him other things as well. And I wouldn't have to make a deal in order to get you to."

The blond's smile returned at this, and he now leaned closer to the woman.

"Have I ever told you that I love your manipulative side?"

"Quit it Romeo." She said, pushing away his face.

Well who would have thought that the other one's plans were virtually the same?


	14. Mabel

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>June 4th, Eight Years Prior...<strong>_

Mabel walked in to the hair salon, and cheerfully greeted the elderly woman at the counter.

"I have an appointment at twelve today." She explained. "Under Pines."

The worker survied the list and gave a nod.

"Yes, you're here. Would you like to pay ahead?"

The young woman nodded and pulled out her wallet, paying the required amount. She then was escorted to a chair, and absently sat down to wait for her hair dresser. The brunette happily spun around in the chair a few times. As her back was to the mirror, someone suddenly stopped spinning the chair and started to fix the apron over her clothing.

"And what are we doing today?" A familiar, nasally voice asked.

"I want three inches off." Mabel replied, not realizing who it was.

Suddenly, the voice leaned dangerously close to her, and the young woman could feel his breath creeping down her neck and tickling her ear.

"Absolutely not." Bill declared. "You're keeping your hair long."

Mabel jumped as she realized how was behind her. It looked like yet another kidnapping attempt would ensue. Sure he had toned it down three or four tries a week, but it was starting to get a little scary and a lot less of an annoyance. Why did he keep slipping up, making stupid mistakes and not putting much effort in to preventing her from escaping? What was the demon getting out of this other than frustration? Why her?

Right away, she planned to jump to her feet and run as far away as possible from the demon. She wasn't going to be put through with this yet again! But as Mabel tried to move, she felt Bill threateningly press a pair of scissors against the back of her neck. Mabel shuddered as she felt the cold metal being held against her. No matter how playful and friendly Bill could seem at times, he was still dangerous. He had motives, plans he was ready to do anything for in order to reach them.

"You can't leave yet!" He reprimanded. "I haven't even started on your hair yet!"

The demon spun Mabel around the chair and stopped her once she was facing the mirror. Now able to see the demon in their reflections, she stuck her tongue out at him. The blond gave a rather cheeky wink in reply, which nearly caused her to laugh. She could finally tell when he was winking, and when he was blinking.

Wondering why none of the other people had come to her rescue, the woman realized that everyone in the building was suddenly lost in their own worlds, paying them no mind at all.

"I'd really prefer if you left my hair alone." She said.

"If I leave it to you, your beautiful locks might never look the same!" The man exclaimed in horror.

"Excuse me?" Mabel asked in indignation.

"Three inches is too much!" The blond answered, not realizing he had complemented her. "Now sit back and enjoy my handy-work!"

Still feeling the pair of scissors that were pressed against her neck, Mabel knew that she did not really have a choice in the matter. So she squeezed her eyes shut tight as possible, and hoped that the demon would not become too creative with her hair.

Shivers of repulsion spread across her as the blond quickly combed out her hair, sprayed it down, and then removed the scissors from the close proximity against her crawling flesh. She winced as she heard the first tiny ship of the scissors as if she had been stabbed with them. She did so again and again as more and more sounds of him cutting off her hair was heard.

What was she going to do? Wearing hats wasn't her thing! That was Dipper's area of expertise! Along with Stan's, Wendy's, and Soos'! Why of all days had he decided to mess with her now? How bad would things be? After he was done with her she would be the laughing-stock of Gravity Falls for sure!

"I'm do-o-one!" Bill said in a sing-song voice.

Mabel did not open her eyes at first. She remained sitting in the chair, not wanting to take the risk to look and see what he had done to her precious hair. Clearing his throat, the demon repeated;

"I am done with your hair. That means you can leave."

Slowly, painstakingly slowly she opened her eyes. Mabel gave a gasp of horror as she saw her reflection. Her hair! It was so short! What had he done to her precious hair?! It looked terrible! The girl felt like choking back a sob as she stared at her reflection.

"And that is what your hair would have looked like if you got three inches off!" The man informed her.

He lifted the illusion on the mirror, and Mabel now saw her real reflection. Anger at being tricked, and relief swept through the brunette as she realized that he had been right. Her hair was fine with just a trim, and he had actually done a very good job, and made sure to maintain all of her layers! Who would have thought that he had an eye for hairdressing?

"T-thank you." She stuttered in relief.

"I saved your hair, it was nothing." He waved off. "Besides, I'm going to kidnap you anyways. If you're going to cry, it should be in fear of of me. Not because of a wacked hair cut."

Her thankful at being saved from a bad choice flickered back to a little bit of fear at the thought of being used as a pawn in his plans yet again. She was tired of this, and starting to wonder if this would continue to disrupt her life, or if the demon would one day "slip up" and do something worse to her.

"Alright." She relented. "Let me just go pay."

The blond nodded, and as soon as he was not looking, she high-tailed it out of the store. Mabel ran and did not stop until she could see the Mystery Shack. But what she did not see was the foot that suddenly appeared just as she was in the home stretch. Mabel was sent sprawling, and she braced herself for impact, and very scraped knees. But she was met with neither, as Bill caught her by the shoulders.

Before she knew it, she had been locked in the cage of unoriginal planning once more. Only this time, Mabel could have sworn that it had grown smaller. She couldn't even fit through the bars any more! And he had imagination-proofed it as well. She was trapped, and would have to wait to find a way to escape.

And wait Mabel did. But to no avail, she was unable to escape. The brunette found herself spreading across the floor of the cage, with her arms and legs dangling outside of the bars. The ever-present feeling of boredom soon overcame her fear, and Mabel gave a tiny sigh.

This caught Bill's attention. The demon turned to her and asked in a threatening tone;

"What? You're too bored to worry about what I'm going to do to you?"

"Yes." She simply stated.

Bill had not really been expecting that answer from Mabel. He didn't feel lile provoking yet another rant on his lack-luster kidnapping skills, but he could not help but ask;

"Well why not?"

"This is boring." Mabel pouted. "Dipper hasn't even figured out that I'm missing. He doesn't even know that you're back!"

"So you're saying that I should announce my return in a dramatic and built-up way?"

"Or at least throw a welcome back party! A ransom letter! Just _something _that isn't more boring than this!" Mabel pointed out, dramatically waving her arms.

"I could make you live through your worst nightmares." He helpfully suggested and threatened at the same time.

"That's more unoriginal than locking me in this cage made out of grey paper-mâché."

Bill happened to like the cage! Even if it was unoriginal! And took ten year's worth of stolen newspapers to make!

"Well what if I transport you back to ancient times and then convince the medieval equivalent of Gideon that your are his betrothed?"

"Please don't tell me you've been taking Blendin' Blandin' lessons." Mabel sighed.

"How about I leave you to the mercies of the Time-Baby?"

"Doesn't he hate you? He'd probably grant me a time wish just to spite you."

The idea of letting _Mabel _get her _hands _on a time wish seemed like a very bad idea. Bill didn't want to picture what redecorating might happen to his precious dreamscape if Mabel had the power to do so, everything would be pink! Glitter everywhere! Kittens! He'd be the laughing-stock of demons everywhere!

"Let's just stick with death threats."

The demon felt a flicker of annoyance as Mabel actually snored in reply. It was fake of course, but it did not leave him feeling any more pleased with the predicament. He had done more teasing than actual threatening most of the time, and he knew that she was getting more worried, but not worried enough.

Mabel stood up in surprise as the blond was suddenly standing over her. And before she could react, he had her pressed against the illogically strong bars of the cage. Mabel tried to struggle out of whatever force he was using to keep her in place, but it was not like the usual methods he used when attempting to kidnap her. It was stronger. With a shiver of dread, the brunette wondered if he was finally going to start taking things seriously, and do what he needed to advance his plans.

"What would it take to make you scream?" He asked.

Mabel stopped fighting the force for a moment, and regarded him in curiosity.

"Scream?" She wondered.

"Yes. You must be afraid of me in some way or an other!"

"Afraid? Of you?" She snorted.

The demon gave her an annoyed expression as he received the rather vocal blow to his ego. Deciding to turn the tides, he suddenly morphed in to her brother, only it was an injured version of Dipper, and he looked like he was going to keel over dead at any second. But Mabel still stood strong, not fooled for a minute by the frightening idea of loosing her twin brother.

"I'm not afraid of you! But I am afraid of what you can do."

Never mind that she was quoting "Wolf Man Bare Chest," it was partly the truth. Sure he could turn in to the thing she feared the most. But it was still the thing she feared, and not him. The blond turned back in to himself with a slight snarl.

"Well if I can't make you scream in fear, what about pain?" He suggested.

"And risk loosing your sure-fire way to get the journals?" Mabel bluffed.

The demon did not call her bluff, as a different idea came to mind. The hold on Mabel faded away, and he stepped closer to the brunette. Brushing the hair away from her eyes with a gentleness she didn't know he possessed, the blond leaned his head closer to hers.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be out of pain or fear." The blond voiced in a husky whisper. "I know other ways to make you scream."

Mabel quickly shook off his hypnotizing stare. She had seen enough vampire movies to know what he was trying to do. She carefully pushed him away by the chest, along with the hands he had conveniently placed on her waist. Not fooled by the antic, Mabel said;

"That's enough Romeo."

"Well you're no fun!" He huffed. "You make it seem like I'm actually going to loose our little contest."

"You already have." Mabel smiled.

"How so?" He inquired.

Bill was caught by surprise as Mabel took a step closer to him, and casually drapped her arms over his shoulders. The blond felt his heart beat speed up as she pulled them closer together than he originally had been before. A faint blush dusted his cheeks, now that he was the one being lead on. He deftly tried to hide from her.

The man soon became flustered at the close proximity of another living, breathing, female pressing her chest against him. A sudden stutter became evident in his voice as the demon was overcome with an unfamiliar senseation.

"W-what makes you think you'll win?" He faintly challenged.

Mabel gave him a suggestive look, and pointedly looked down at his waist. This caused him to blush farther, and he cursed his human body for having such a susceptible weakness. The brunette stood up on her tip-toes, and whisptered in to his ear;

"Because I know how to make you scream as well."

"R-really?" He weakly asked

"Definitely." Mabel smiled.

Suddenly, he found himself being eased out of his (inexplicably heavy) blazer, which was carelessly tossed to the side by Mabel. The demon shook his head slightly, wondering wether or not this was actually happening to him. Continuing to softly speak, the brunette said;

And all I'd have to do is TICKLE YOU!"

Out of nowhere the seemingly tense romantic moment vanished, as Mabel started to tickle his now exposed sides. Bill found himself helplessly giggling and unable to fight back. He had been tickled before in Dipper's body, but he was hoping that would be a one-time thing. Unluckily for him, it wasn't.

Leave it to Mabel to come up with a scheme like that. And who was he kidding, she would never do anything like _that _with him of all people. Bill didn't even understand where the logic of that idea had come from! But everything now made sense as he realized that she could not tickle him with his heavy blazer on. And if it took preying on his human desires to do so, Mabel would.

"No! Stop it!" He screamed, trying to push away her hands between laughs.

"I don't think so!" Mabel said in reply as she deftly reached for the loop of keys (Whivh was what she had really been staring at.) Attached to his belt.

Mabel pulled the ring of keys off with one hand, and continued to tickle the blond with the other. Tears now swam down his face as he kept laughing and laughing.

"P-please!" He panted. "No more!"

"I guess that's enough." She relented.

Through tear-filled eyes, the demon was aware of her finding the key to the cage (It just so happened to be made out of paper-mâché as well.) And locking him inside. But as he recovered from his tickling attack, the man felt that he could care less. After all, his plans could wait, couldn't they?

* * *

><p>"And what's the rule for this spelling?"<p>

"I before E, except after C." Monty dutifully recited.

"Great job!" Mabel smiled, ruffling her son's hair.

Monty happily accepted the affectionate gesture, happy to be receiving more attention from his mother. The little boy was just so glad that they were both finally safe, and would never have to worry about Gideon ever again. Things finally seemed to be getting better for the both of them.

The little boy now found himself with a new-found thankfulness for almost everything. He certainly hadn't been thankful for a bath time before he and his mother came to Gravity Falls! Every meal was something special now as well, and it took all of Monty's self-control to not raid the kitchen. Sleeping back on a bed was nice too. But best of all was actually having his mother back, and safe with him, instead of somewhere he couldn't check on her.

The two of them currently sat in the library, the room where Mabel had woken up in. They had been keeping up with Monty's English and Mathematics, seeing as he would need to keep up on those as well.

"Alright, now to the second and fifth question, find the verbs, prepositions, and adverbs in the sentences."

Monty gave a determined nod, and eagerly started to circle or underline any of the defined words. The woman could not help but smile proudly at this, glad he was still intent on learning. She had always helped him get ahead in his class at school, because she enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing how happy it made her son.

Mabel went through teacher's college online, during the time she was pregnant with Monty. And now she taught in a small school. So it was only natural that she would want her son to be doing the best out of all the other pupils in his class.

She already had her other requirements like the proper amounts of volunteer hours, so she was able to continue her education despite everything that had happened to her. So she happily worked as a teacher of her own little kindergarten class. Of course,she needed to know how to teach children up to a grade five level, so there was no issue in helping Monty with everything he needed to know.

She was good with kids, and loved doing more play than actual work, but could be serious and strict when the time called for it. The only downside would probably be that Monty tended to get jealous of all the other kids, stating that they had their own mothers. But Mabel supposed the jealous streak was something that he just shared in common with his father.

"Done!" Monty happily announced, turning the paper over to her.

Mabel took the paper, and quickly scanned over it. Sure enough, he had circled and underlined each verb and adverb correctly.

"That's my boy!" She happily grinned.

"Is it recess now?" Monty eagerly asked.

Mabel picked up the hand bell he had imagined a while back, and nodded as she rung it.

"Recess is the most important part of school! Next to lunch that is!"

The boy now jumped to his feet, not even bothering to push in his chair. Mabel got out of hers just as ready to play along. It had been forever since she had been able to do normal mom stuff.

"What are we doing today then?" The brunette asked.

Monty paused, thinking for a moment. Then he declared;

"You're the Princess! And my brother and I are going to rescue you from the evil!"

_"Brother?" _Mabel silently asked herself.

Right on cue, Monty's "brother" appeared next to him, brandishing a pirate sword. Much to Mabel's immense shock. But she reasoned that the other boy was simply an imaginary friend, who had been literally brought to life thanks to the powers of the mind. That still didn't help explain the striking resemblance to a certain someone though.

"Are we going to be pirate brothers?" The blond boy eagerly asked.

"We're saving a princess." Monty reminded, pointing to his mother. "Pirates are bad guys!"

The other boy looked over at Mabel, and for a moment he completely forgot that he was going to play games with Monty again. It was Mabel! He couldn't belive that she was back again! But as much as he wanted to hug her, the offer of getting to play make-belive once more was too strong.

"Pirates can do good stuff it they want to!" The personification insisted.

"Well... Alright." The dirty-blond slowly said.

"Yay! I'll be Captain Red Beard, and-"

"But I wanted to be captain!"

"We'll be co-captains!"

The banter quickly went back and forth between the two, until they had decided on their roles and the scenario. Now Mabel stood on to of a pile of giant books, practically a mountain of them. She was out of their reach, and that was the plan as the two rival brothers worked against each other in order to make it to the top and rescue the princess.

"Arrr! I'll rescue her first!" Monty declared.

"Not with that pool of sharks in your way!" The other boy insisted, pointing to a pile of books that was a layer lower than Monty.

Monty quickly took a running jump and made it over the pit though.

"Ha! Take that! I made it!"

"I'll save her first!" The blond declared, jumping over the obstacle as well.

Their tiny battles waged on like this, on finding an obstacle for the other, and both outwitting whatever traps had been laid in the end. Eventually, they both reached the princess, who was waiting at the top of the books. The brunette felt a bit left out, especially since she hadn't had many chances to spend time with just her son. But Mabel supposed it was good for Monty's social skills if he played with other children.

The duo reached Mabel at the same time, and both stated;

"I saved her first!"

Mabel got to her feet with a grin, she had planned this since they had first started fighting over who would win. She knew how to defuse a potential fight when it came to these sort of things.

"Neither of you win, because you haven't caught me yet!"

With that, Mabel slid down the pile of books, giggling all the way as she left the both of them in the dust. The boys shared a striken expression for a moment, as they realized their trials were not over. Then, they followed down the piles of books, both with the intent of catching her first.

All three of them were sent on a wild goose-chase, as they ran through the twisting formations and structures that were formed by the books. One of the boys would find her at a point, only for Mabel to vanish again. If they were certain that they had caught her, she would find a way to escape.

In the end, all of them were laughing and panting as they tried to finally catch up with the princess. And if anything, Monty and the other boy needed rescuing from themselves. As they each ran from separate paths, all three of them found themselves crashing in to each other.

Mabel was pressed under the weight of not one, but two little boys. Monty she didn't mind so much. Although the reminder of why he was to light was a grim one. It was the other practical stranger that she felt a little bit wary about having on her back. Now was a good time as any for confrontation, she began;

"I never really caught who you were."

The boy frowned slightly, and got off of the woman's back.

"Mabel, it's me." The little boy insisted.

Yes he looked like the child equivalent of Bill, but that did not clarify much to her.

"I still don't get it."

"Me!" The blond replied.

"What he means to say is that he's part of Bill." Monty helped elaborate.

"A part of him?" Mabel wondered.

She had never encountered anything like this little boy before. The parts she had seen tended to be more, grown up, less inclined to niceties. Especially when some of them encountered Mabel. It had taken multiple lectures from the man before they would keep a safe distance from her. Even then she was not completely safe from their shared intrigue and lusty mindsets.

"Why would part of him manifest itself in to a kid?"

"I'm innocence and good intentions!" He proudly declared. "That's why I'm so small!"

"Oh, nice to meet you."

"It's great to finally see you! Seven years of him sadly moping around and in denial, and now he's better again!"

Before Mabel could farther continue the conversation with the little bit of innocence, he spoke once more.

"Speaking of which, Dad's looking for me right now."

The blond ran off, obvious heading to wherever the larger part of him was.

"Dad?" She softly wondered.

"He said that Bill considers him the kid he never had."

_"The kid he never had with me..."_

Mabel shuddered a little bit, feeling slightly creeped out by the notation. She couldn't really blame him for the parts associated with childhood taking on the form of a little boy, but that didn't mean he had to view him as the son he wanted to have with her! Monty referring to him as a sort of brother made more sense as well, and as far as she was concerned, that was just as bad.

Still, she would not linger on the thought. Bill was doing his best to reestablish ties with her. If they were going to follow through and fulfill the marriage bond, it would be on good terms. The reminder was a grim one, but it was at least better than being married to that monster. Mabel did not want to exchange that in return for a monster who was pretty much unredeemable! But he still had a suprising number of fine points that could be salvaged and brought to the surface once more with some TLC.

Mabel knew that she needed some time to herself to do a little more thinking. It was a mood she didn't often experience. But during her nine months of loneliness, she got used to doing a bit more thinking and reflecting once in a while.

"I think we'll call recess to a close for now." Mabel gently suggested.

"But-"

Being a master of negotiating with her son, the brunette offered;

"The faster we end recess, the faster we get to work, and the faster we get to work, the sooner we can end school."

"Alright!" The boy happily chirped, jumping to his feet. "I'll race you back!"

Mabel groaned, and slowly got to her feet, holding her back as she did so.

"I don't know. My back feels a little- READYSETGO!"

Mabel dashed off in the direction of the spot where she and her son had been studying. Monty followed behind her, laughing all the way, as he and his mother finally felt properly reunited.


	15. Birthdays

**This chapter and the next have longer flashbacks than actual story, but when you read the, you'll understand their importance. If by important you mean adorableness of course, but who's checking? Also something important is revealed, and new sort of characters are introduced. Key word being sort of. But I'll let you guess on what the reveal is... AH HAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, haven't evilly laughed in one of my author's notes for a while now.**

_Apprendre français avec votre favouri Canadienne Connivencee! __Learn French with Your Favourite Conniving Canadian!_

Sans m'aider=Without my help

À bien tot= (Doesn't translate literally into English. Essentail meaning provided.) Until later

m'Étoile= My star

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>June 18th, Eight Years Prior...<strong>_

Mabel happily wandered around the store, a new-found bounce in her step as she survied all the different phones. It was her and Dipper's twentieth birthday today, and it had been a complete success. Except for the surprise party part, but it was difficult for anyone to give the twins a surprise party, as they counted the seconds for their birthday every year.

Dipper had gone off to do his own things for the evening though, which left Mabel a little put out. They always spent their entire birthday together! But she understood why he might want a little time off from all the partying now that they were older. But Dipper would be ready to start up again once they had a little break from partying.

Besides, they could always wait until next year to do the crazy stuff! They would be legal adults next year, they could throw the craziest party ever full of adult stuff! Well, according to the skewed laws and terrible police officer of Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel could do adult stuff. But they were not considering that. So next year would be their best year!

So, with some of her latest pocket-money, Mabel had decided to treat herself to a new cellphone. Her old one was too clogged with glitter for it to function any more. Nothing particularly expensive caught her attention, but she found a nice pink model of her old phone, and it came included with the perfect phone case. She picked up the particular phone that she wanted, and made her way to the counter to work out a phone plan.

"You can get one hundred minutes and unlimited texting for thirty dollars a month, or there's the long-distance calling for free while you pay two cents a text. Oh, and there's also pay as you go plans! And then you could to a custom pay plan where you would-"

Mabel winced as the geeky man working behind the counter continued to list all of the different plans. She had not really been anticipating so many boring words. But then again when her parents bought her first phone, she was too excited to listen to what the people were saying about the phone plan.

"Plus, there's a deal where you can get an extra Navy-Blue Tooth ear piece if you get the-"

"She'll take the plan with fee per use minutes and free texting. Along with the lower cost on long-distant calls." A voice from behind her stated.

Why was it that Bill could never not appear out of nowhere like a ghost? Not surprised as she would have been if the demon had not kidnapped her every other day this week. This was supposed to be the day where he left her alone, why was he here?

"Bill, that's the most expensive plan!" The brunette pointed out.

"Ah, but it's also the best one." The blond pointed out.

Mabel looked at him skeptically. Sure unlimited texting was nice, but she didn't have any use for long-distance calling.

"I can't afford to pay that." She sighed.

The demon seemed nonplussed by the idea, and fished a rather dusty-looking and crumpled wallet out of his back pocket. Fishing through the folds of it, he placed his own credit card (Who knew that you could get your own demonic foem printed on it without some sort of inquiry?) And placed it own the counter. The clerk took it without hesitation, and before Mabel could protest it, Bill had registered himself as the one paying for her phone. He selected Mabel's new number as well.

With her new phone in hand, Mabel pulled the man out on to the street, where they would not be heard by any other people. Placing her hands on her hips, the brunette suspiciously looked at the demon.

"Why did you do that? I would have picked a plan eventually!"

"Key word being eventually." Bill shrugged.

"Why? Did you just not want to wait to kidnap me or something?" Mabel skeptically asked.

"Today's our day off." He frowned, as Mabel did not get the point of why he had done this for her.

"Then why are you here?" Mabel winced as she said this, it was a bit harsh. "I mean, I don't see you unless you plan on kidnapping me."

"It's a free country. Well, kinda'."

"Is this some sort of way to get me to owe you?" She wondered. "And a credit card? What illegal stuff did you do to get that?"

_"Always assuming the worst of me..." _Bill winced. "It was completely legal. I set up a bank account, and got one of your needlessly complicated card-y things. At least it's an improvement from carrying around bars of gold everywhere. Do you know what those things can do to your back?"

"But where do you get money from?"

"Hah, well it's technically legal." Bill stretched.

"Oh really?" Mabel challenged.

Bill pulled out a one-dollar bill from thin air. From there, he tore it in half. Only, the fractured halfs grew black, giving him two dollar bills instead of one.

"Being on human money has it's benefits." He cheerfully explained, gesturing to the Eye of Providence on the side.

Well, he wasn't really copying the money, or faking it like Stan. They were both perfectly legal... Mabel supposed that it was legal for him to do so...

"Well... Ummm... Thanks." She said, now considerably more quiet. "I guess I'll see ya' around."

"Yup, I'll be back for you tomorrow." The blond lightly threatened.

He left after that, leaving Mabel to walk home and ready to resume her birthday with Dipper.

* * *

><p>Mabel returned back to the Mystery Shack, and quickly dashed upstairs with her new phone in order to get changed. She and her brother had plans to go out for dinner, seeing as neither one was about to cook a special birthday dinner for the other. During the time that Mabel got changed and put on a few touches of makeup, the sun quickly set, and night began. It was seven by the time that she was perfectly ready and prepped.<p>

The brunette flashed herself a charming smile in the mirror. Because they were doing something so special, she decided to leave her birthday-themed sweater behind. But it was only for a little bit. She loved her sweaters. Mabel would never give them up! Now, Mabel was wearing a magenta summer dress. It was almost the same colour as her shooting star sweater. It felt a lot lighter as well. Although that may have been because her sweaters were rather heavy. She had also managed to tame her wild, curly hair a bit as well.

She looked pretty awesome if she did say so herself! The birthday-girl slipped on her sandals, and went in search of her brother. Completely betraying the grown-up look she possessed, Mabel slid down the banister and hollered through the Mystery Shack;

"Dipper!"

She was met with no reply, the brunette began in eager search of her twin, calling his name through all of the Shack. She was met with no reply. Which was odd, because normally, an irritated Grunkle Stan would eventually tell her that her yelling was interrupting his "manly, not The Duchess Approves televisions shows." Mabel finally found Dipper once she returned to the gift shop, where her brother leaned against the vending machine. Mabel wondered why her brother looked so nervous.

"Were you- er calling me Mabel?" Dipper wondered.

"Yeah silly!" She grinned, punching his shoulder. "We were going to the diner for our birthday dinner! Remember?"

Dipper did remember, but he was a bit tied up at the moment with Stan. He hadn't really anticipated discovering a giant gate way to unimaginable power under the Mystery Shack. Stan had just told him, now that he was quote on quote. "A man. Kinda'." He wanted to go out to dinner with his sister, but he couldn't just abandon his post either. Oh who was he kidding? Who cared about a twenty-year tradition when this was under the Mystery Shack, and Stan wanted to include him in the opportunity of a life-time?!

"Ummm... I did 't really remember." He lied.

Mabel's smile faltered a little bit.

"That's alright! Besides! It's not like you made plans or anything with someone else on our own birthday!"

Having been bestowed the perfect cover, Dipper said;

"M-Mabel, I sorta', kinda', maybe actually did that."

Again, her once beaming face dimmed a little bit at this news.

"But you can still cancel them..."

The guilty look on Dipper's face said it all to her.

"I'm sorry Mabel." He tried to apologize.

"I-It's fine, r-really, it's alright." She said, her voice starting to wobble.

Mabel quickly left the gift shop, blinking back tears as she went up to the attic and shut the door with more force than really necessary. The young woman flopped down on her bed with a saddened sigh. So much for going out that night...

"I may as well get this new phone set up..." She glumly mused, pulling the phone out of her purse.

Mabel stared at her reflection in the screen of the pink phone, and made a face at herself. Already she had rubbed the foundation off her cheeks. It was just took hard to keep wearing makeup before she was certain that her face felt itchy. The freckles around her nose refused to stay hidden for very long. Oh well, there was always inner beauty as well. If a guy couldn't handle her awesome uniqueness, then they were obviously not the one for her.

Thinking back to when she had gotten what was essentially a free phone, Mabel wondered what the motivations could have possibly been. When they talked he had a perma-smile to rival Mabel's. Although while she normally smiled at the smaller things, with laughter, and joy, and happiness. Bill on the other hand, his were more centered around malicity, and enjoyment of doing terrible things, terrorizing other things. She had never seen him smile as if he was actually happy, and not from causing trouble. If he had been smiling like that, as he spoke to her, she would have probably returned the phone and cancelled her plan. But his smile was almost... Dare she say it? Friendly?

She was snapped out of her thoughts when her phone decided to slip out of her hands, unceremoniously landing on her face. Mabel gave another sigh at this, but made no move to push it away. She still could not belive that Dipper had actually made plans, on their birthday dinner! Maybe she should have been more persuasive, kept telling him that he would be missing out on an awesome birthday dinner. That they had broke their old streak of nineteen dinners...

Mabel thoughts seemed to be cursed this particular day, as they were interrupted yet again. Her phone buzzed, indicating that she had gotten a text. It was probably just some dummy server from the phone company sending her a default text, but she still checked. To her surprise, it was not.

_Hey, add me 2 yr contacts._

Throughly confused, she replied;

_What? Who are u? Maybe u have the wrong number._

_Don't u recognize my number?_

For some reason, Mabel heard the statement in Gideon's voice. He was creepy enough to know that today she had gotten a new phone. But it was probably one of her friends who saw her in town, and now wanted to play guessing games.

_No. I don't._

_Look out of yr wind0_

The classic line of the serial killer in urban legends. Hopefully it was one, and not Gideon instead. Mabel sat up from her spot in bed, and looked out the window. To her immense shock, someone worse than a serial killer and Gideon combined floated outside of the window. Bill.

"Who actually sold him a cellphone?" Mabel groaned, feeling a headache coming on as things finally started to click.

She opened the window, which was a bit pointless considering he could have gone through it. Still, the demon now floated in to the room, waving around a phone.

"Do they even have cell service in the dreamscape?" Mabel wondered.

"You'd be surprised. It's considered long-distance though. But now that I know your number, I can annoy you all forty-eight hours of your tiny human days!"

"There are twenty-four hours in a day." Mabel tersely pointed out. "And you can block numbers on your phone for a reason. Otherwise Gideon would call me every chance he got."

"Twenty-four, forty-eight, what's the difference?"

"Twenty-four."

"Yeesh, who turned you in to Pine Tree today? Aren't you supposed to be the loud, annoying one?"

"That roll's already been taken by you!" She shot back. "You loud, kind of triangular but not really, kind of... Yeah!"

"I may see a lot of things, but that was uncalled for!" Bill replied, feigning hurt.

"Oh um... Sorry." Mabel quietly apologized.

"Don't sweat it, it takes a bit more than that to actually hurt me."

"So what? You came here just to announce that you've found a new way to make my life more crazy than it already is at the moment?"

The demon was half-tempted to admit he was there because his human-y instinct-y things were giving him this weird feeling in his stomach, and how the time he was currently spending with her made it go away. But Mabel already thought he was crazy enough, and he didn't want to scare her away and have that weird feelingish thing come back to him. If he just spent a little longer with her, maybe an hour or so, the thing bothering him would let him be.

"Why are you dressed differently?" Bill wondered, stalling for time.

Mabel looked down at herself, and then gave a sigh at the reminder.

"Dipper and I were planning on going out to dinner." She glumly replied.

Seeing the happy energy suddenly funnel out of the brunette caused another one of those strange sensations in his gut. Why was there no winning with this stupid human body.

"Were?"

"Well, Dipper and I go out for pizza on our birthday every year, but he's got other plans at the moment."

This caught the demon by surprise. He had no idea that it was the twin's birthday already. Time certainly flew when you were planning your revenge and working on the exact details of your plan to destroy the entire planet for your amusement.

"Why waste?" The blond shrugged. "You're dolled up already, why not go on your own?"

Mabel blushed at another one of his unrealized compliments.

"I don't know." She mused, biting her lip. "Going alone would seem a little bit, lonely."

_Lonely..._

Was that the next, inexplicable feeling that seemed to fill him with the will to do nothing but mope around the dreamscape? Despite the inner conflict raging within, he offered Mabel another one of his friendly smiles.

"I'll go with you."

* * *

><p>Bill's little personification of innocence was happily walking along with Mabel and Monty, as his dad wanted to see the both of them for some reason. The blond boy was not quite sure why that might be, but he was just doing as he had been asked to do. It wasn't his job to fight with him unless conflicting moral choices came up, or he decided that murder was the easiest option.<p>

Additionally, since he knew his way around, and where his dad would be if he moved somewhere else in the dreamscape, he was the one leading the way. Having exited the library, they were out in the halls of eternity, which were the easiest ways to get from place to place. At least, if you knew how to get around. Deming that it would be best to take a short-cut, the boy walked over to a door marked "employees only."

Mabel eyed it hesitantly. She was familiar with that room, and would rather avoid what was inside. Especially after seven whole years to deepen any wounds there might be. She gave her son a warning look, telling him to prepare for the chaos that would ensue inside.

The inside of the room seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary at first. It actually looked like a staff room one would find in an office. There were a few couches arranged in a square, chairs and tables, a vending machine, and a water cooler. The walls of the room were painted a neutral grey, and there were all sorts of motivational posters across the walls.

The odd thing about this room was the people inside of it. All of them were Bill to varying degrees. His innocence was the only one who was a child though. The rest were all the same age, with the single exception of Wisdom, who was a tired, wizened old man.

Each Bill looked the same for the most part, but had a few defining traits. Knowledge was reading a book, both logic and Reasoning had glasses perched on their noses, and held themselves with dignified posture, and so on. There were at least thirty different versions of him that were currently in the staff room at the time.

"Hey guys!" His innocence chirped.

Paternal Instincts gave the boy a smile and waved while straightening his tie, as did Curiosity. Creativity smiled, but did not stray to far from his painting. Logic and Reasoning simultaneously gave the little boy stiff nods. But as a whole, they largely ignored the boy who tended to be considered the runt of the litter.

Monty and Mabel on the other hand, were a completely different story. Right away Curiosity came over to Monty and began to inspect the boy with his magnifying glass as he asked questions at top speed to him. Parental instincts rushed over as well, and scolded Curiosity for being so tactless, only to eagerly start asking questions himself.

Bill's darker traits caught sight of Mabel first. Cunning saw her first, and naturally tried not to draw attention to the fact, he intended to keep her attention solely focused on him. But as Animal Instincts took a curious sniff of the air, he realized who was back as well.

The brunette could not help but shiver as the ragged man with blood-shot eyes stared at her. Animal Instincts gave a howl of delight, and sprang towards the woman. But Logic and Reasoning caught on to him before the snarling beast could get his hands on her. Humility jumped in as well, and held Animal Instincts with his arms behind his back.

"Oh no you don't!" Logic said in a painfully fake British accent.

"Back you scoundrel!" Reasoning chimed in with the same terrible accent, smacking Animal Instincts with his cane.

In the meantime, the attention of Lust was caught. And as he saw that Logic and Reasoning were preoccupied with Animal Instincts, he gave a smile. Whenever Mabel entered the room, it was like no one else was there. His world became nothing without the brunette there. While he was normally calm and subdued, the mere mention of Mabel could trigger a reaction. His world only became her when Mabel was involved.

Lust caught Mabel around the waist, and pulled the struggling brunette closer to him. Staring down at her delicious, soft, lips, he wet his own lips with his tongue. He could not wait to have his fun with her again.

"Leave her alone sicko!"

But he was pulled away by Pride, who wished to be praised and rewarded in not so many descriptive words, for saving her from Lust. Finally, Reasoning and Logic had taken enough of their other counterpart's antics. Logic gave a shrill whistle, and Rsasoning commanded;

"That's enough everyone!"

The emotional traits all pulled away from Monty and Mabel. Most of them looking more annoyed than guilty for their actions. Bill's mind was not short on chaos, that was for certain. Since the two traits now held the group's attention, they resumed their lecture.

"You're still required to give her space." Logic stated. "Especially Misters Lust and Animal Instincts."

Lust pouted slightly, but forced himself to nod. Animal Instincts just growled as Humility kept him in a head-lock.

"The same applies to her son." Reasoning added.

"Now get back to what you were doing before!"

"Chop! Chop!"

They glared until the others were at least pretending that they were doing something other than longingly staring at Mabel. Now the duo turned around to face Innocence, who flinched slightly at their harsh stares. Mabel and Monty could only stand there awkwardly as the boy was scolded by them.

"Why did you think that this would be a good idea?" Asked Logic. "Bringing her in to here with all of these hooligans! Are you mad?!"

"Mad indeed!" Followed up Reasoning. "You could have given a warning. Something to alert us!"

The boy hung his head in shame, knowing it was true.

"I'm sorry." He quietly apologized, staring at the ground. "I just needed to take the short cut through here."

"Well you should have thought things out more." They scolded at the same time.

"I know." He mumbled.

"Good."

With that, they both gave a brief nod to the boy.

"Shall we continue with our conversation Mr. Reasoning?"

Reasoning brought a dramatic hand to his forehead, and stated;

"Alas, I can not! For I am needed along with young Innocence here, along with the lovely-" He paused to give Mabel a charming smile. He _was _a part of Bill after all. "-Mabel and her son."

"Oh cruel fate!" Logic sobbed. "I bid you farewell Reasoning!"

"I shall not be gone for long. I know you can handle a few of the less contents without me!"

Mabel just rolled her eyes as the two continued with their endless theatrics and fake British accents. How was it that these two represented Logic and Reasoning? Eventually, Reasoning managed to tear himself away from Logic, and visa-versa.

"Shall we continue onwards?" Reasoning asked with a bow.

Monty gave the man a strange look, and Innocence stuck out his tongue behind the pompous man's back. This caused the both of them to grin. The brunette had to fight back a smile as well as she saw their actions. Still, she linked arms with him and let the man lead the quartet out of the short cut. Not being one for silence, the blond asked;

"So what bring you back?"

"A very long story." Mabel grimaced.

The man raised a curious eyebrow at this.

"And in short terms?"

"Gideon is a demon now, he's taken over Gravity Falls, and I made a deal to escape. As it also turns out, no one decided to inform me that I'm trapped in an unbreakable marriage bond. Also, it's taking all of Bill's self-control not to ask me who Monty's father is."

She finished the last two parts in a whisper, as to not alarm either of the boys of her rather sticky predicament.

"I've been trying to tell him that he should just bite the bullet and ask!" Reasoning defended. "I know that you'd tell him!"

Mabel gave a deep sigh at this. It was always a topic that she'd rather much forget. She would rather not have it be a topic at all! She still could not help but feel ashamed when she thought about it. It was sometimes just so hard to bare the looks and the comments she was given for being a single mom.

"No I wouldn't." The woman softly said.

"But you could tell me." He reasoned.

"Alright." She squeaked in a dead whisper. "Monty's father is Dipper."

"WHAT?!" Reasoning screamed, loosing his fake British accent.

The boys looked over at Reasoning, wondering what his screaming and wild hand gestures were about. Mabel was unfazed as he rambled on and threatened to castrate her brother amongst other things. But she just sighed and rolled her eyes, and had to fight back a smile at his strong reaction.

"Aren't you supposed to be Bill's reasoning? Does that make any sense whatsoever to you?"

The demon stopped is ranting to the ceiling in mid-sentence at this. He slowly started to turn pink as he realized what she meant.

"Ummm... No. It doesn't really make sense."

"No wonder why Bill hardly has any reasoning!" Mabel giggled . "You suck at your job! You and Logic just sit there in the staff room with your fake accents and drink tea all day!"

"Hey! That's not true!" He whined.

Mabel gave him a pointed look.

"Well, only some of the time." He relented. "Besides! Someone has to keep all those hooligans in line! What would happen if I just let Animal Instincts run around the dreamscape? Or even worse, what if I let Sadism?! And Cunning?! And there would be a complete meltdown if Irrationality got together with Ambition again! They'd have taken over the world with a banana peel by now if we hadn't separated them! And then there's Melancholy who would turn an all-powerful dream-demon in to a crying teenage boy and that would be humiliating and Pride would totally get all bent out of shape about that which would cause- Oh look! We're here!"

Sure enough, during the time that the man had gone on ranting, they had made it to their destination, that being the man's office. Before going in to the room, Reasoning let go of Mabel's arm, and gave another bow. Monty glared at the man as he took her hand to kiss it, but Reasoning disregarded the warning stare as a true gentleman would. Switching back to the fake accent again, the man said;

"I have taken what you said in to serious consideration. All of us better traits have been slacking all these years, you were the only person who could ever really motivate us to do our jobs and help keep balance. I intend to talk with Mr. Logic on the matter, and from there we will prepare a speech. We must prepare to fight off the storm that approaches, and farther investigate the Gideon matter."

"That's a good idea." Mabel nodded.

"Of course it is." He pompously replied. "I came up with it!"

Innocence could not help but snort at this. But his action caught the attention of Reasoning. Instinctively, the boy flinched and prepared to be lectured again. He was not. Instead, the man gave him a polite smile. That caught him by surprise, as Reasoning had only ever smiled when talking with Logic, or Mabel.

He entered the room, obviously to talk with a man for a moment. The trio waited outside for him, and he returned within a few seconds. Then, Reasoning stated;

"My visit was rather pointless, as he's already come to a decision on the matter sans m'aider. So now I take my leave. Young M. Innocence shall accompany me back to the staff room. He is an important trait after all! À bien tot m'Ètoile!"

Mabel groaned as she realized that Reasoning was now on a French kick. At least she could understand what he was saying before! Innocence on the other hand practically glowed with the praise. He waved at the two Pines, and then cheerfully ran off with the man.

Mabel and Monty quietly entered Bill's office. The demon was sitting at a desk, his eyes fixated elsewhere as he stared off in to space. But the sound of Mabel and her son entering the room snapped him out of whatever thoughts he might have had.

"Reasoning brought you here, good. Have a seat." The demon's tone was one unfamiliar to Monty, more brisk and business-like than he had ever heard before.

Both Pines sat down. The man gave a look at Mabel, silently asking her something, to which she nodded back in agreement with. Monty wished at the could understand this silent conversation with only his eyes, but this was a secret language in of itself. Bill took what looked almost looked like a nervous swallow, and started to drum his fingers on the desk.

"Kid." He began, addressing Monty. "We've got two important things to talk about."

Monty had no idea what he could possibly be talking about. But there was something in his quiet tone that seemed a little bit foreboding to him. Bracing himself for the worst, the dirty-blond asked;

"What is it?"

Taking a deep breath, the older man said;

"Well, remember how your imagination block was not working?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?"

"It's not broken. You've been able to do all that stuff because you're a demon, at least your dad was. He would have passed it on to you."

Monty stared at the man in complete shock. He was a demon?! But how come he had never found any signs of this before? This was great, but where were his powers when he needed them most? Still, the idea of having them was nearly impossible. It seemed unreachable to the little boy!

He looked up at his mother, wondering if this was all a joke. But Mabel gave him a weak smile, and nodded in confirmation. Then he looked back at the man, who also nodded at his disbelief in the matter. He was a demon... He had powers... He would be able to do things like Bill could...

"You've got questions." The blond smiled in knowing. "But I'm not the best person to explain the answers. I have a chum who can though."

"R-really?" He asked in a tiny voice.

"Really." He nodded.

As part of their silent agreement, it was Mabel who was going to explain the second bit of news. This was a subject far less uplifting than her son's new discovery. But it was best if Monty knew that this was going to be somewhat inevitable.

"The next part isn't as exciting." Mabel quietly broached.

The boy's timid grin faded at this, but he was still ready for something not as great.

"Well... There's no easy way to explain this, all the how's and why's of it..."

Monty did not know what that meant, but he assumed that from the tone of her voice this was going to be bad news.

"Bill and I are going to get married."

"WHAT?!"

Bill inwardly flinched at the look he was given from Monty. He really looked like his uncle when confronted with this kind of news.

"We've been engaged for a long time." Mabel tried to soothe.

"B-but he's- Do you even- Why can't you-"

Monty stuttered on, a mixture of feelings rising within as he did not know how to react to this. What was he supposed to do?! He wanted to protect his mother from other men, yet here the demon was revealing that he and his mother were engaged! He was a bad guy! And would that make him his dad! Would he be like Gideon to him? The only thing worse than being Dipper was being his son!

"We're not actually going to get married until you're both alright with it though." The man quickly followed up.

"Do you want to get married to him?" Monty inquired, ignoring the man's reassurance.

Mabel bit her lip at the question. She had just so blandly accepted the fact that in agreeing to marry a demon, she would be doing so for life. But she had never considered her own feelings on the matter. She knew that the man was trying to win her back so she would at least be happy, but she didn't actually wonder if she wanted to be happy with him. Not after all that had been caused before.

Monty received no reply, and instead turned back to the man.

"And you want to get married to her for real this time?!" He wondered, waving his arms in the air.

He had the decency to blush, and seemingly sink in to his seat. This gave Monty enough of an answer to his question.

"But not until you're both ok with it!" He tried to feebly add.

Not knowing what to think of all this, the little boy crawled on to Mabel's lap, and burst in to tears. Everything was just so confusing he didn't know how he should be reacting to all of this news. Happy? Excited? Sad? Mad? Angry? Frustrated? Trapped?

His cries just seemed to receive no answers. Everything was just so inexplicably mixed up and he did not know how to react to it all. He was a demon, did that mean he was going to do bad things? Was he evil? And why was it that a part of him liked the idea of his mother being married? That somewhere deep down, he wanted to have a dad like other kids did!

Mabel quietly patted the boy's back and pet his hair until he had calmed down a little bit. Eventually, he was reduced to the occasional hiccup, but other than that, he remained rather silent. Trying to pass over the awkward moment, Bill said;

"Uh, kid?"

"Go away! No one's here!" Monty said, his voice muffled into Mabel's sweater.

"Please could we just-"

"No!" Monty stubbornly insisted

Mabel gave the man a pointed look over her son's head. He was a Pines, and they all happened to be the most irritatingly stubborn people to ever walk the face of the Earth. It would take a bit more than asking nicely to get things to go his way.

Something seemed to click with the demon though. It was like seeing some sort of bigger picture that had not been visible to him before. On occasion, getting a kid to cooperate required scolding them. But a little harmless bribery never hurt either. And while juice and cookies probably wouldn't work on Monty, getting the answers to some of his questions certainly would.

Bill got up from his seat, and gave a yawn. Mabel gave him a peculiar glance, wondering what he was up to. Gut the blond just ignored this in favour of saying;

"Well I guess we can't go out if you're just going to hide like that. I thought you might want to get some of your questions answered. But I guess that I was wrong!"

Mabel caught on to what he was doing, and she could not help but smile at this. When he wasn't being insufferable, he was cunning. And some of that was always needed when you dealt with kids. Mabel knew this all too well from experience. It used to take hours of negotiations to make Monty take a bath (He must have gotten that from Dipper.) And bed time was a living nightmare unless she had tired out her son previously. The man really did have some parent skills deep down.

Monty realized what he was saying, and instantly peeled himself away from his mother and jumped to his feet. Wiping away a few stray tears, the boy declared;

"I'm fine!"

"Of course you are!" The man grinned. "Now let's head off and get your answers!"


	16. Beguiling

**Fluff! Oh this flashback is adorable! It unfortunately means this chapter is loooooong. Like, really, really, I'm adding more words by talking like this long. Like, I'm continuing to talk so I can make this chapter 7000 words long. I hope that the end result of reading all this chapter is well worth it for you. A great quantity of evil went into writing this chapter, especially the end.**

**My favourite number is 100. **

**And happy winter holidays everyone!**

**-Evil-Ekat**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.**

* * *

><p><strong>June 25th, Eight Years Prior...<strong>

Bill was standing on the porch of the Mystery Shack, preparing for his first, very serious attempt at actually getting the journals. Of course, his plan had not changed in the slightest. He was still planning to use Mabel against her brother to get the books, but this time he would take it seriously. For real! It would be very serious! Super serious! So seriously serious that everyone would look in fear as they heard his name once more!

And his plans had absolutely no secret intentions either! It wasn't like he had opted out of his usual outfit for the first time in centuries, now wearing a respectable black suit, without his hat and a regular tie, because it was all part of some sort of grand scheme to spend more time with Mabel to get rid of the feeling that bothered him without attracting the obvious attention of anyone. He was just trying to look like the tax collector, in order to insist that Stan owed him Mabel ninety-nine plus tax!

Now would have been the perfect time to break in to a around of evil laughter, but he did not, because Stan had just opened the front door of the Mystery Shack. The old man now stared at him, wondering why there was a young man standing on their front porch like a complete idiot.

"I've come here to kidnap your great-niece!" The blond proudly declared.

Stan just stared at him in skepticism. Sure he was dressed in black, but he was wearing a suit and tie! And his hair had been combed slightly! That was no kidnapper! If anything, he was an awkward guy either trying to sell something, or going out on a date with Mabel. But finally, he got what the young man on his doorstep was trying to say. A smile broke across his face, and he laughed;

"Hah! You kids and your weird slang! You're here to go on a date with my great-niece! For a second there I thought you were serious!"

"What? No! I-"

Before Bill could protest, he had been dragged into the Mystery Shack by Stan. He was lead in to the living room. From there, Stan called upstairs;

"Mabel! There's this weird guy here who wants to see you!"

Having a good idea who this "weird guy" was, Mabel quickly came downstairs. Sure enough, it was exactly who she had expected, minus the hat, bow tie, and colour change. He had even taken a stab at combing his hair! She wondered why that was.

The demon gave her a helpless look, silently telling her to play along. Leave it to him to not only interrupt her otherwise peaceful day, but manage to start a complicated lie as well. She wasn't comfortable with having to fake anything like this.

"Are you ready for our date?" The blond asked.

_"Date?!_" She screamed. "I mean, yes! The date that we will be going on because that is a thing people do because letmejustgograbmypurse!"

Mabel dashed out of the room, trying to suppress the urge to freak out and ask why his first excuse had to be a date, and not something less weird like grave-robbing. Stan remained smiling until he was certain that his great-niece could not hear the two of them. Once he was sure of this, his once friendly posture vanished, and a scowl crossed his face.

"Alright buddy, what are your real plans?"

Bill started to panic as he thought that he had been found out.

"A d-date!" He squeaked.

"Well I know that knuckle-head!" Stan said. "Date plans?"

Date plans? He didn't know how to plan a date! What was it that humans normally did on dates? Reproduce? No! That wasn't until later! Stan would kill him if he tried to do anything like that with Mabel, whether he knew who he was or not! So they did stuff with each other first! Friend stuff that did not involve reproduction! Eating and such! That would be adequate right?

"Dinner?" He practically asked.

"And?"

And?! There was more to a date than that?! What else did Mabel like to do? Art, crafts, knitting, girl stuff. She read those horrible romance novellas with her friends. There were those rom-coms too...

"A movie!" The young man added.

"Where are you going you eat?"

"J-just something at the diner before we see the movie." He fibbed.

"And what movie are you going to watch?" Stan asked, narrowing his eyes.

"W-whatever one Sh- M-Mabel wants to s-see! Probably a rom-com!"

"What activities will ensue at the movie theater?" Stan asked, knowing from first-hand experience what guy's intentions happened to be when taking a girl to the movies.

"W-we'd watch a movie! What else would we do?" The man asked, completely naïve to his sort of thing.

"Are you certain?" The man asked, practically showering him with spit on his C.

"Alright! If it's a rom-com I might fall asleep throughout it!"

Stan stepped away from the other man, evidently satisfied with the answers he had been given. The blond inwardly sighed with relief at this, glad that he had fallen for his ruse. His timing was perfect, as Mabel now leaped down the stairs.

She was wearing a different sweater now, a pink one with fingers making a promise simble on the front. Her long hair was covering the cross fingers that were stitched on to the back. Her hair had been brushed and set back with a light green headband that matched her skirt. A feeling stirred within as he saw the young woman again.

"I'm ready!" She nervously declared.

"Alright then kiddo." Stan smiled. "Be back before eight! Or you friend will find himself buried that many feet under!"

Bill shuddered at the thought, and made a mental note to have Mabel home long before then. Just as he and Mabel walked out of the Mystery Shack, Dipper came in through the gift shop entrance. Rubbing the oil grease on his shirt, the young man asked;

"Did Mabel just go by?"

"Yeah, she's off on a date with some guy." Stan waved off.

Dipper felt a bit of concern for a moment. His sister had been a little bit scarce the past few days. At first he thought it was because of the little fiasco on their birthday, but maybe it had been because she was going out with a guy. Still, she was nearly an adult, and could handle a guy if things got ugly anyways.

"Oh. Anyways, we need a dozen or so more braces. I'm going to go place an order for them."

Stan nodded, and inwardly congratulated himself for deciding to include Dipper with his plans. The kid was a great asset, and things were progressing even better than he had initially expected. As much as it pained him to leave Mabel out of this, there were somethings that you could not include too many people on. Three was not the charm, as Stan had learned years ago.

* * *

><p>Having placed in an order at the local hardware store, Dipper wandered the streets of Gravity Falls, not feeling like heading home right away. It was a nice summer eventing outside, warm, but not too stifling. The sky had taken on a orangish hue, as the sun was starting to make it's descent on Gravity Falls.<p>

Dipper realized he was starting to feel a little bit hungry, and changed directions instinctively. The diner was not very far off, but he slowed down his normally faster-paced walking as something caught his attention. The young man was surprised to see Mabel walking to the diner, along with her date.

She seemed to be frowning slightly, which Dipper automatically took as a bad sign. The man's odd clothes also struck something with Dipper, but he was not really sure why that might be. It looked like his sister might possibly need rescuing from this latest development, and Dipper was more than willing to help out now that he was no longer busy.

Walking over to the diner, Dipper now took a cautious peek through the window. Because the restaurant was raised, he was only really able to see under the tables, and the floor for the most part. But he was still able to follow his sister as she and her date picked a booth by the window. The would not be able to see Dipper from their height, so he did not have to worry at all about being spotted.

The man sat down next to Mabel, rather than across from her. He found this interesting, seeing as most people prefered to sit across from each other to see. But it still gave a perfect view of both their faces, so he was not really complaining.

Studying the blond man farther, Dipper found that there was something fishy about him, something familiar. Perhaps it was a few details, a facial feature. He had an alarming semblance to someone he knew, but Dipper was not sure who that person in question was. It could have been the blond hair, Gabe Benson's was like that. And it had been typical for Gideon to wear a blazer everywhere he went. They shared the same, guile blue-grey eyes as well.

Lazy Susan came and took their orders. She quickly returned with them, knowing Mabel's usual, and already having it prepared. She had the man's meal too. Mabel happily picked up her fork and ate a few of her French-fries, but the man stared down at them with an odd expression on his face, not touching them at all. Dipper's eyes narrowed in suspicion at this.

Mabel just smiled and shook her head. She placed the fork in the man's hand, and indicated for him to eat. After a pause, and giving Mabel a somewhat sheepish glance, he did so. The man suddenly winced as he watched the man awkwardly and somewhat experimentally stab one of his fries and eat it. He rubbed his arms, wondering why watching him made him uncomfortable. Dipper noticed how awkwardly he held the fork in his hand, but quickly grew accustomed to it. He wondered if the man was a foreigner of some sorts, or a supernatural creature. Why else would he be so awkward with doing something as simple as using cutlery?

But much to Dipper's alarm, the blond was perfectly fine using his knife to cut his steak. If anything, he was a little too happy and skilled as he made several, rather violent tears in his nearly rare meat. The man seemed to be smirking somewhat between bites of his food as he looked down at the nearly red juices from the meat on his plate. Maybe he was a were-wolf perhaps? Perhaps he was just sadistic? The way he was holding that steak knife was something that made his hairs stand on end.

If Dipper had not been so intent on watching the smaller details of his sister and the potential monster, he would have noticed things about the two of them that were much more startling. While they stared off sitting there somewhat awkward at first, they soon grew more friendly and chatty with each other. Both were talking rather quickly, back and forth to the other.

Not only that, the man had no problem with Mabel's silliness what so ever. For all of the guys Mabel had been with before, this was a real first. He smiled, and even participated along as she asked for a kid's menu to get free crayons and play tic-tac-toe, he did not mind as she folded his napkin in to a boat hat and placed it on his head, and the game of footsie that began under the table went on for a while until he managed to pin Mabel's food under his.

And to top it all off, there were several more illogical happenings. Normally Lazy Susan would come over and flirt with any man, but she never did so. Any time she seemed to be free, a new customer walked through the door, or there was suddenly a table to clean. Not only that. The both of their drinks were not finished yet, despite both of them taking sips every now and then. Almost like they were being refilled on their own...

Dipper's eyes widened as he watched the man do something else in response to one of Mabel's remarks. He leaned over to the brunette, and placed hand on her leg as he whispered something to her. It remained there in it's rather comfortable position as well. Mabel noticed this, but did nothing to protest the action, and only giggled at what he had said to her.

Alarm bells rang in Dipper's mind, as he knew that this was serious. It was definitely time to go into full-out protective brother mode, and make sure that this creep did not do anything to his sister. So, he followed the couple as they left the diner, always making sure to keep a safe distance away. It was nearing dark now, but not too late yet. Perhaps there was a bit more than an hour until seven-thirty. So he trailed after them to the movie theater.

Much to Dipper's dismay, it was Mabel who was picking the movie judging by the diabolical grin on her face.

"Maybe we should pass on the movies tonight." The man said, looking at the poster she was pointing to rather faintly.

"I thought you said you had a schedule to run on, and couldn't steal me away till later." Mabel pointed out.

"That's true." Bill relented. "I can't kidnap you too early, otherwise my entire ittinerrary for world domination will be skewed."

This was a lie. It just happened to be his excuse for keeping out with Mabel, and actually going on the date with her as promised to Stan. Besides, he knew that she was uncomfortable with lying, so it would be better if she did not have to make up some fictional story about how their date had gone.

Deciding it was just best to let her pick the movie anyways, as he knew nothing about them and might pick something just as bad, he let Mabel order the tickets for them. Which he paid for, pointing out that he had already broken the system, and she didn't have to leave him in her debt.

The couple skipped out on paying for the over-priced snacks, slightly to Mabel's disappointment. But the man promised if that there was still time left in his kidnapping schedule, they could go get something after the movie. Of course, there would be time seeing as his kidnapping schedule was non-existent. The only thing they really had to worry about was Stan's curfew.

Mabel practically dragged Bill through the theater until she found the "perfect" seats near the back of the crowded theater. Taking a look at his surroundings, the blond noticed that he was not the only reluctant-looking man sitting there with his girlfriend (And in a couple cases, boyfriend.) He braced himself for what was going to most likely be a painful ride.

The lights soon dimmed, and the movie began. It was the typical rom-com set up, with a girl and a guy in high school. The two hated each other for no reason other than to create tension, and the movie simply dragged on from there. People didn't just suddenly go from hating each other to dating like that!

And what was this whole idea about a good girl, kind and proper, falling for the scary biker dude who would probably break her heart? They were polar opposites, with some bare similarities! Pathetic humans and their notations of this "love" stuff.

He was certainly glad that he did not have any sort of emotional weakness for another human! That would just completely get in his way! He would never be able to complete his plans because they would always end up distracting him! There was the occasional demon who found a human mate, but for the most part his kind remained aloof. Love! How weak would it actually be to succumb to one's emotions like that?!

Bill soon grew restless watching the incredibly uninteresting movie. His shorter attention span was not good at simply just sitting back and not really doing anything. He started to wiggle in his seat, but Mabel elbowed him in the ribs, and silently told him to stay still.

_"Shooting Staaaaaaar!" _He whined.

Mabel jumped as she heard the demon's voice inside of her head, nearly as clear as being spoken out loud. After a pause, she realized he could probably just read her mind, and figure out what her reply to his childishness was.

_"Yes?"_

_"This movie is boring, I wanna' do something else!"_

_"What?! This is artful story-telling."_

_"No, it's boring!"_

_"Tough. Who would have thought an all-powerful demon couldn't even stand to sit through a rom-com?"_

Bill straightened in indignation at this. He could handle watching this movie perfectly fine! Just to prove how well he could concentrate on the movie, he did not reply. Instead the demon did his best to follow along with the plot, and stare at the screen.

Suprisingly enough, he was able to become somewhat intrigued with the movie. Yes the story was still a little bit dumb, and he had to look away at all of the kissy-touchy parts, but there was a part of him that was nearly interested. The male lead being the bad one, but slowly managing to reform in his ways struck him for some reason. Sure there were redeemable people out there, but not everyone really was. No amount of the human's all-powerful "love" could erase some of the things that they did to one and other. So why was there something so compelling about the idea ofthe bad-boy managing to change his ways?

Bill knew full well what he was. His acts of instability were merely that, acts. He was sane as any human being could possibly be in his situation. Given powers to use against people and cause harm, he did exactly that. There was a part of him who relished in being an inhuman monster.

The rest of him, simply didn't care one way or another. He didn't feel remorse for anyone or anything. He simply didn't care. There was nothing for him to actually care about, other than his plans for the grand finale of the planet. Bill was a demon, he had never really felt the need to atone. So why was it now that he suddenly had an overwhelming desire to trade places with the shallow movie bad-boy?

A quiet snore interrupted his thoughts. Much to the demon's surprise, Mabel had fallen asleep. On him. Her head was leaning on his shoulder. Bill was not very familiar with physical contact, so the naturally startled him at first. Other people touching him involved pain.

It always involved someone trying to hurt him. Sure he made the occasional involuntary contact with someone to cause pain or agony in one way or an other. He was always able to anticipate those, not like an unexpected attack. But Mabel leaning on his shoulder was different. She was warm, comforting. He liked it.

A pair of eyes concealed by a pine tree base-ball cap narrowed as the blond cautiously placed an arm around her shoulders. Whoever this guy thought he was, he would not be hanging around his sister for much longer. Not if he could help it.

* * *

><p>Huffing and puffing, Bill and Mabel made it back to the Mystery Shack with seconds to spare. Stan was standing on the porch, looking down at his watch as he waited for the couple to arrive. The duo climbed up to the porch, and tagged the front door.<p>

"W-we made it back b-before... Eight." The blond panted.

Stan stared at the young man, a scowl plastered across his face.

"You're a minute late." He growled.

"What?" Bill wondered. "No we're not!"

Stan displayed his watch to the couple, just as it struck a minute after eight.

"You are now." The man replied.

"Oh, and what are you gonna' do about it?" He challenged. "Forbid your great-niece, the most stubborn person on the planet from seeing me?"

Mabel gave her grunkle a pointed look, and Stan knew that the guy was right. And Mabel could handle her own against anyone who wasn't right for her. She was one tough cookie, and if he tried something with her Mabel would probably get to him before either he or Dipper could. But that being said, the guy wasn't all that bad. Maybe a little nervous, but he seemed credible enough. Of course, there was only one way to find out for sure.

"Well, you've got a point there." Stan mused. "But you'll never see it coming."

Knowing this line very well, the man ducked just on time to miss Stan's (Purposely a few inches off of it's mark, as he didn't need a lawsuit on his hands.) left-hook. And much to the blond's surprise, the man gave him a toothy grin. Clapping a hand on his shoulder, and shaking the lanky man slightly, he said;

"Not too bad."

"Uh, thanks?"

Stan gave a barking laugh, pointing at the man to Mabel.

"Hah! This guy! I'll leave you two to say your goodnights."

With that, the older man left the young couple to do their thing. Mabel gave the blond an awkward smile, knowing that he was trying to figure out what Stan's antics were about.

Now the couple were left to their own devices out on the front porch of the Mystery Shack. It was dark out now, the stars shining beautifully in the sky. Crickets were now chirping, and the summer air smelled sweet. The only real light came from the orange-yellow light on the porch. Suddenly, the two of them were aware of how alone they were.

Bill now ironed out his posture, reverting back to his usual confident (Alright, perhaps his heart was beating like crazy.) self. He glanced down at the imaginary watch he did not happen to possess.

"Well darn! I missed the kidnapping deadline by a few minutes!"

Mabel giggled at this, realizing what the man was saying.

:Well you'll just have to wait till next time!" The brunette grinned.

"Yeah." He agreed, a nervous smile flitting across his face. "Next time..."

They were quiet, attempting to figure out what to say next.

"Hey Bill, was this a date?" Mabel finally asked.

He felt his heart freeze at the question. How was he supposed to respond to that?

"Well that's what Stan thought it was." He responded.

"Yeah, I know that. But _was _this a date?"

Feeling his cheeks heat up, the man decided to draw attention back to Mabel instead.

"Well did you think it was a date?"

Now she blushed too, wanting to hear his answer first.

"I'm not telling until you do." She insisted.

"Whoa, no way. You first!"

"No, you!"

"I insist that you say so first!"

"Go on!"

"Ladies first!"

"At the same time?"

"Yes."

Both closed their eyes and took in a deep breath.

"Yesitwasadate!" "Nothiswasn'tadate!"

Bill stared at Mabel in shock, another one of those stupid strange feelings swept through him with an icy bitterness. Of course admitting some sort of weakness to another person would result in this! It always would! Anger followed this feeling tearing at his insides, and Bill felt seriously tempted to go back on his word and just kidnap Mabel then and there.

"Why?" The blond managed to calmly ask.

Staring down at her feet, and shifting in her spot slightly, she said in a tiny voice;

"Because there's something you tend to do on a date, and we didn't."

"What?"

"This!"

Mabel stood on her tip-toes, and pressed a brief kiss to his cheek. She ran inside and slammed the door behind her before she could see him react. Bill's mind completely emptied of thoughts at that moment. His anger and hurt was replaced with a warm feeling in his chest. His eyes widened, and he took a stumbling step back.

Unfortunately for Bill, the step he took back happened to be right off of the porch. The blond landed flat on his back, splayed out on the ground. Still in shock, he pressed a hand to the spot where he had been kissed. A glowing heat seemed to radiate from that spot. It was he first ever kiss. He had never been kissed before. It was amazing. So much better than any pain he had inflicted in himself before. He wanted more.

"Wowza..." He whispered to himself.

A face peered over his field of vision. Dipper stared down at him, and the demon could not even bring himself to be embarrassed by the compromising position. He felt too giddy.

"Are you ok man?" Dipper asked.

"I'm fine Pine Tree, just peachy..." Bill absently trailed.

"BILL?!"

* * *

><p>"I'm not wearing this!"<p>

"Come on, what's wrong with the clothes?"

"I'm not wearing a bow tie! That's stupid!

"I happen to like bow ties." Bill muttered under his breath.

Mabel continued to negotiate with her son on what to wear from one side of the bedroom door. He being the best dressed out of them did not have to worry about changing his clothes, but Mabel and Monty would have to. As semi-formal was the current trend (And he was pretty darn sure it was thanks to his own clothes.) in the demon world. Mabel was not yet dressed, as she informed the man that dealing with your own kids clothes often risked messing yourself up.

"Look, if you wear the blazer, you don't have to tuck in your shirt!" Bill pointed out. "If you don't, you have to tuck in your shirt and that feels all itchy!"

Mabel looked over in surprise, and he flashed her a smile. Pulling up his blazer, sure enough, his own shirt was still untucked. This caused Mabel to snort, as she remembered that Bill absolutely flat-out refused to tuck in his shirt because it always bothered him too much.

After a moment's pause from Monty, the little boy replied;

"This really is itchy!"

Monty emerged from his attic bedroom, looking slightly embarrassed in his "not normal" clothes. Bill possessed some sense of decency, and knew that yellow would clash with his hair too much. True the demon had blond hair as well, but his went better with yellow, while Monty's was still a mix of the dyed brown parts, and fair patches. So the demon made sure to avoid the colour yellow when picking what Monty should wear.

Thus, he settled for light silvery-grey. He found that it really was the little boy's colour, and Mabel couldn't agree more. He was the only boyfriend she ever had that knew his way around fashion, and could give actual advice that was helpful on it...

"You look very handsome!" Mabel smiled, giving her son a kiss on the forehead.

"Gross! Mom!" He protested, wiping away any cooties he might have been given.

"You do look pretty snappy though." He chimed in.

"That's because you wear a suit all the time! How can you move like this?" The boy made a few, struggling gestures with his arms.

"Practice." Bill lied. "And also maybe possibly all my stuff is charmed to not be restraining. I've got other things too. Water-proof, fire-proof, and Mabel-proof versions as well."

"And yet you can't get one that doesn't have an itchy shirt?" Mabel wo dered

"Well he's not wearing a tie!"

They had skipped on a tie, as Monty just protested it to much and insisted that it would try to strangle him. But for some odd reason, he actually liked the little cuff-links he had been given. They were silver, and shaped like tiny arrow heads. The demon had warned him before hand to not loose them, because they belonged to him and he wanted them back.

Mabel just shook her head at the pointless arguing and went to go get dressed herself. Without his mother there to hide behind, the boy became more shy. During that time, the demon gave a quick run-down on some basic etiquette, and rules.

"Don't trust anyone by how they look, don't talk to anyone beyond a hello, don't look at anyone, keep your chin up, stay close to me and your mother at all times, don't hear out anyone's offers for deals, try not to seem too naïve, and-"

"Trust no one?" The boy offered, unnerved by the number of things the man was commanding at top speed.

He shook his head eagerly as this.

"Yeah that about sums it up!"

"Why?"

The demon groaned. Something told him this question was going to be one that he would come to loathe.

"Because you can't trust a demon, and everyone always wants to find some way or the other to manipulate me."

"Why would other people want to manipulate you?"

"Because I'm a dream-demon, means I'm a few miles above everyone else. That being said, I was already the most powerful demon made in the past twenty-eight millenniums to begin with."

Monty stared at the man in surprise.

"You're really old!"

The man could not help but blush at this.

"I'm not that old! Do you see any grey hairs on this head?"

Just to make a point, he pulled off his hat, and displayed his head to Monty. There was a moment's pause and all of a sudden, Monty pulled out one of his hairs.

"What was that for?!" He snarled.

The boy flinched, taking a step away from him.

"I'm s-sorry!" He squeaked.

The blond just gave a sigh and shook his head. The kid was still afraid of him at times.

"It was nothing."

Monty's posture relaxed slightly, and he cautiously help out the grey hair he had found on the man's head. When Bill saw what it was, his eyes widened in horror. He was getting old! The demon started to stutter incoherently, pointing at the silver hair. This was how Mabel found the two, Monty holding something she could not see, while Bill seemed to have contracted shell-shock.

"M-M-M-a-a-b-e-l g-g-g-r-r-e-e-y... H-h-hair!"

She looked over to her son for an explanation.

"He's got grey hairs!" Monty smiled.

Mabel could not help but smile too, staring at him in shock.

"You're not that old!" She pointed out. "Especially by demon standards!"

"E-easy for y-y-you to say!" He whined. "I'm one thousand times your age!"

"That's a lot of candles." Monty added, not quite knowing how much twenty-eight thousand was.

"Yes it is." Mabel agreed. "Now can we get going before we're late?"

The man jumped to his feet indignantly, straightening his posture.

"Preposterous! We won't be late!"

"Aren't we visiting your uncle at four?"

"Great pancakes! Why are you just standing there?! We're going to be late!"

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Mabel, most of the short trip was done while blind folded. According to Bill, some of things they would see could not be comprehended by a human brain, and he did not want her to go insane because of it. Thus, she was lead around by bother her son and the man, as they left the dreamscape, did a bit of walking, and eventually ended up somewhere more quiet.<p>

On occasion, she heard the occasional demon state hello to them, or give a squeak of fear as they saw Bill glaring at them in particular. But they were left alone by everyone for the most part. After a while, Mabel was finally able to take off the pesky blind fold.

She found herself in an office-like building, not unlike the staff room that happened to be inside of the man's mind. They were in a hallway at the moment, just outside of an office door. Bill was the one who knocked at the door. They were met with a brief;

"Come in!"

He opened the door, and they stepped inside. Like the rest of the building, the inside of the office room was complete normal. A desk, chairs, endless papers and a few discarded coffee cups that did not quite make it to the garbage can and so on. The only peculiar thing about the room was the window. It gave a view of a city skyline during what appeared to be night. Only, the sky was red, and the stars were golden in colour. There were three moons as well.

The man in the room was fairly average-looking. He had silver hair and a few aging lines across his face. The thing that stood out about him the most were his ruby-red eyes. The man's eyes lit up with delight as he saw the trio there.

"So you finally decided to pay me a visit!" He declared in a booming Scottish brogue.

Suddenly, the man turned in to a large wild cat, and sprang at Bill. The demon's eyes widened in shock, and then proceeded to be chased around the room, and along the walls and ceiling, screaming at the top of his lungs;

"Uncle!"

"You were gone seven years!" The wild cat snarled in his voice.

"Uncle!"

"Not even a phone call!"

"Uncle!"

"And I couldn't even visit you!"

He was eventually caught as the man pounced, and the two were sent tumbling over one and other. The silver-haired man turned human again, as he pinned a struggling nephew to the floor by his arms.

"Say it!" He snarled.

"You're hurting- Ah! OW, uncle! I've said it already let go! Uncle!"

The man let go of him, and got to his feet. He dusted off his suit as if absolutely nothing had just happened, and his entire office was now a mess. With a wave of his hands, everything was put back to where it should have been. Or, at least it was until he saw Mabel and son.

Naturally, he saw Mabel first, and gave her a polite greeting.

"Mabel! How's my favourite niece doing? I haven't seen you in a while either."

She gave the shape-shifter a hug.

"I've been a bit busy."

His eyes widened in surprise as he now caught sight of Monty, who was clinging on to her leg as if his life depended on it. Then, he slowly turned around to face Bill.

"A kid?" He quietly asked the man at first.

Realizing where the shape-shifter thought this was going, he tried to shake his head, but it was already far too late.

"A KID?!" He asked, suddenly bursting in to flames.

"N-no, Robert-"

"How could I be left out of this?!" The man asked, pressing a burning fingertip against his suit and burning a hole through it.

"No, listen-"

"I never got to go to the baby-shower, and I didn't get to hear his first words and first stops and his first words better have been my name by the way and how am I supposed to make up for never seeing him and you have a lot of explaining to do William!"

The man finally cooled down enough, but still remained glowing like an ember as the demon proceeded to explain;

"He's not my kid. He's Mabel's, but he's not mine."

"Then why are they here?"

"His father's a demon."

"Whoa, you're accusing me? I never-"

"No Uncle, I am not accusing you, especially since you're a shape-shifter, not a demon, of being the kid's dad. I just need you to do some explaining for him because I'm not supposed to."

The flames around the shape-shifter completely extinguished now. The man had considerably calmed down this time, and seem much less inclined to break in to yet another one of his short-fuse rants. He smoothed out his charcoal-coloured suit, and fixed his once properly slicked back hair in to it's old position. He then began the proper introductions that any normal person would have made.

"Hello Mabel, it's great to see ya' again." He began with a smile. "And who's this little nipper with you?"

The brunette tried to push her son away from her legs, but Monty refused to go anywhere close to the man after all he had just seen.

"This is my son, Monty." She introduced.

He crouched down to the boy's height and offered him a hand, but Monty refused to take it. The older man just gave a shrug as if t meant nothing to him.

"Shy aren't ya? But we all know who's fault that is." The man said, shooting a glare over to Bill. "But no matter! I'm your Uncle Robert! Rob for short!"

The word "uncle" made unpleasant thoughts surface in Monty's mind. His instinctive reaction was to not like the man because of this.

"How can you be my uncle?"

Robert gave a deep laugh at this and said;

"Well I'm everyone's uncle for most part! I'm not actually related to any of the folks around these parts, and there aren't many of us shape-shifters left."

"So we're not really related?"

"Little Billy's my closest nephew, and that makes Mabel ma' niece! Which I guess makes me your great-uncle by technicality."

Bill winced at the nick name. But Mabel grinned at his discomfort as the humiliating tease was awoken once more. Monty was trying to work out what a great-uncle was in his head, but was satisfied with the idea that a great-uncle and uncle were two different things.

"S-so you can answer my questions?"

"Well of course I can, have a seat!"

Monty did not move at first, hesitant to leave the human shield of his mother's legs behind. But with another shove from the woman, he sat down by the man. Mabel took the chair next to her son, and the demon (Sufficiently cowed by his uncle's attacks.) followed suit.

Robert pulled a blank piece of slightly yellowing paper out of his desk, along with a pen. He spoke, more to himself than anything;

"Now your father probably should have registered your existence with us, but if not, we'll start a record for you from scratch. Full name?"

"Montgomery." The boy paused, sneering at his middle name. "Dipper Hirsh."

"Hirsch?" The shape-shifter wondered.

"It's my own mother's maiden name." Mabel quietly said. "We don't go by Pines."

"Ah, I see."

Robert wrote the boy's name at the top of the page, but the paper remained completely blank. He shook his head and made a disapproving noise.

"Lazy deadbeat. Looks like we're starting from scratch laddie! I'll need a drop of your blood."

"What? Why?" Monty nervously asked, shrinking away from the man.

"You shape-shifters and your theatrics!" Bill snorted. "His spit will to the same job!"

Mabel and Robert snorted at the demon's hypocrisy. Bill Cipher was a drama queen, everyone was well aware of the fact. Shape-shifter nature tended to be more cartoon-like. For all respects, they almost were cartoon characters in the way that they could switch forms, and survive having a safe dropped on them. Bill on the other hand, he was just dramatic.

"Yes, I suppose it would." The silver-haired man relented. "Just lick the end of the pen please."

He handed over the pen to Monty, who gave everyone in the room a weird look before licking it. The man took it back, and when he pressed it to the paper, lines spread across it in a black ripple, and all of the boy's demographics started to record themselves. The man then picked it up, and started to read out some of the information on it.

"Let's see, yes, that's your name, you are indeed a boy, that's not your natural hair colour, you are a fairly short seven and three quarters year-old, your mother is Mabel Ariel Hirsch née Pines, and your father is-"


End file.
